LA VERNE, Calif. – The University of Redlands Baseball team (6-5, 2-3) split their road doubleheader with the University of La Verne Saturday.
Bulldog starter Nathan Buchan (Mercer Island, WA) threw seven shutout innings to lead the Maroon and Grey to a 3-1 win in Game 1. Then in game two UR could never get the offense going or keep the Leopards off the bases as they lost in seven innings 16-1.
Game 1 (W, 3-1)
Redlands only scored three times in the first game picking them up in the first four innings to give some breathing room to Buchan. The first run of the game came in the second when Cade McClelland (Mission Viejo, CA) singled into left center scoring Max Clark (Fontana, CA) who reached earlier on a double to left field.
The very next inning Will Cell (Seattle, WA) got the offense going with a double to left center, eventually coming in on a Jared Anderson (Gilbert, AZ) base hit through the right side.
Insurance was added in the fourth inning from catcher Kaiya Saito (Bellevue, WA) when he went with an outside fastball driving a single into the gap in right center bringing home McClelland.
Combining on the terrific pitching performance by Buchan, who improves to 3-1 on the season after throwing 7.0 Innings of shutout baseball with five strikeouts was Omar Barraza (San Mateo, CA) who went 1.1 Innings giving up just one run and Jakob Russell (Fontana, CA) who grabbed his third save on the season going 0.2 innings, striking out one.
Saito had a multi-hit game going 2-for-4 with an RBI and McClelland was 1-for-3 scoring once and driving in another.
Game 2 (L, 16-1 | 7-Innings)
Game two started well for the U of R with Luke De Vries (Irvine, CA) leading things off with a single to center field. Then with two outs Clark walked and moved Esteban Nakashima (Riverside, CA) to second base, but they both were left stranded as the Bulldogs were unable to take advantage.
After working around three Leopards reaching base in the bottom of the first, Redlands was unable to stop the offensive threat in the second as La Verne scored 10 times on just three hits.
Redlands' lone run came in the fifth when De Vries added his second hit on the day, this time a double into left centerfield, which plated Saito as the scored moved to 13-1. That would be their only run scored on the afternoon as they were run-ruled in seven innings, 16-1.
Despite allowing double digits, the Leopards only had ten hits, but the Bulldogs walked nine batters and hit another five. One pitcher did have a good outing for the Bulldogs, and that was Alec Aguayo (Riverside, CA) who came on in the third and worked around a pair of base runners to throw 2.1 Innings of scoreless baseball.
De Vries was the only Bulldog with a multi-hit game as he went 2-for-3 with an RBI.
Redlands will take a quick break from Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) play as they host Nebraska Wesleyan for a single game on Monday, March 6 with first pitch set for 2:00 p.m.