LOS ANGELES – The University of Redlands Baseball team (15-19, 7-13 SCIAC) completed their first Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) series sweep of 2023 as they won both games of their doubleheader Saturday at Occidental College with wins of 9-5 and 14-1 after taking game one of the series Friday.
Game 1 (W, 9-4)
The Bulldogs picked up a pair of RBI's from Cade McClelland (Mission Viejo, CA) on a single into left field as Luke De Vries (Irvine, CA) and Jared Anderson (Gilbert, AZ) came in to score after walking and singling to start the game.
After Sebastian Mejorado (Oceanside, CA) walked, Kaiya Saito (Bellevue, WA) got an RBI on a sacrifice fly to right as Gabriel Ceja (Long Beach, CA) scored to make it 3-0 after a half inning.
The Tigers, though, got three runs in the bottom of the second as they took advantage of five hits. UR starter Nathan Buchan (Mercer Island, WA) left the bases loaded to keep the game tied at three.
In the third Ceja hit a solo home run to right in what was the first run of six unanswered for the Maroon and Grey. The big inning would be the fourth when they scored four runs to seal the win. The scoring started with a pair of bases loaded walks to Ceja and Max Clark (Fontana, CA). The Clark walk would turn into the game-winning run as Will Cell (Seattle, WA) scored after reaching on an infield single to short.
The last two runs of the frame came via a third bases loaded walk in four batters and a second RBI for Saito as he drove in Clark.
The final Redlands run came in the eighth when Occidental gave the Bulldogs their fourth free run of the game as Mejorado got an RBI on a bases loaded hit-by-pitch. A ninth inning solo shot from Oxy made it a 9-4 final.
The first game of the doubleheader was tough on the mound for both teams surrendering a combined 14 runs on 13 hits, but 17 batters were walked and three were hit (all by Occidental pitchers). The two teams could have had more runs too, as 18 runners were left stranded.
Ceja, McClelland, Mejorado, and Saito all drove in two runs with Clark reaching base three times thanks to walks. After some rough stretches for the staff, Jakob Russell (Fontana, CA) pitched 3.2 no-hit innings with four strikeouts as he got the win in relief. Fellow reliever Joe Godoy (Commerce, CA) threw 3.1 innings with only one hit and walk while striking out a career-high seven hitters.
Game 2 (W, 14-1 | 7-Innings)
In the final game of the series, it was all Bulldogs from the second inning on starting with Omar Barraza (San Mateo, CA) who opened up the scoring with a single to drive in Mejorado. That same inning Barraza and Jake Burgess (Riverside, CA) would score on Anderson's two-run single into center.
The Bulldogs doubled their lead to 6-0 in the third as Cell picked up a free RBI with a bases loaded walk and then game one starter Buchan doubled to left and brought in Barraza and Burgess for a second time.
After a Tiger home run in the bottom of the third and a scoreless fourth, Mejorado added a solo shot to left center that led off the inning. After an out, Burgess singled and Cell doubled in front of Buchan. He would then bring in Burgess on an RBI-groundout. The final three runs of the five-run fifth came on a throwing error, a single from Ceja, and a second error on a failed pickoff attempt.
In the sixth Clark made sure the Bulldogs had enough cushion to complete the run rule victory as he hit a three-run shot to left moving the final score to 14-1.
Buchan came off the bench and drove in three runs, Clark also had three RBI's as the first four batting spots combined for eight hits, five runs, and nine RBI's as Anderson went 2-for-5 with a pair of runs and an RBI. Ceja had a career-high three hits and drove in a run and Kyler Bacosa (San Jose, CA) started and got the win.
Redlands will go to Pomona-Pitzer for a makeup game from February on Tuesday, May 2 at 4:00 p.m. before ending the regular season with a three games series against Caltech next Friday-Saturday, May 5-6. Senior Day will take place prior to Game 1 and first pitch is slated for 11:00am.