U of R Baseball beats first place Cal Lutheran 6-5 as they withstand late rally

Image Credit: Adrian Williams
Image Credit: Adrian Williams

REDLANDS, Calif. – The University of Redlands Baseball team (7-6, 3-3) took down first place California Lutheran University (CLU), 6-5 at The Yard Saturday afternoon thanks to another great start from senior Tyler Reiter (San Diego, CA).

The Kingsmen got an early run on a solo home run to left field in the first inning. But UR was quick to respond in their opening at-bats with Luke De Vries (Irvine, CA) scoring on a balk and then Cade McClelland (Mission Viejo, CA) driving in a pair with a single up the middle making it 3-1 plating Max Clark (Fontana, CA) and Jared Anderson (Gilbert, AZ). 

Will Cell (Seattle, WA) picked up the Bulldogs' fourth run of the game with a sacrifice fly to center that scored Kaiya Saito (Bellevue, WA), who had reached prior on a double down the right field line.  

The fifth run came in the sixth when Esteban Nakashima (Riverside, CA) was able to score on a wild pitch after he advanced to third on a two-base throwing error by the pitcher earlier in the frame.  

The game-winning hit then came from Clark in the seventh when he singled home Anderson for a 6-1 lead that looked safe at the time. The Kingsmen would score four times the next half inning to get within one, 6-5, and had multiple runners on in the ninth before Patrick Perez (Ontario, CA) came on to get the save.

Anderson went 3-for-4 with two runs scored, Reiter got the start and allowed only three earned runs while striking out seven with only one walk as he improves to 3-0 and Perez got the final two outs for his second save on the season.

The Bulldogs head on the road to complete the three-game series with the Kingsmen, Sunday, March 12 with first pitches set for 11am and 2:30pm.