REDLANDS, Calif. – The University of Redlands baseball team opened their 2022 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) schedule with a 10-6 win over the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens Friday afternoon at The Yard. The Bulldogs trailed by six runs heading into the bottom of the fifth before scoring ten unanswered to pick up the come from behind victory.
The Maroon and Grey improve to 5-1, 1-0 SCIAC and keep their winning streak intact at four games.
Senior Andrew Rueter (San Diego, CA) was strong in the first two innings but saw the wheels fall off in the third and fourth when he gave up six runs putting UR in a hole early.
The Bulldogs responded and got back into the game with a four-run fifth thanks to current D3Baseball.com Team of the Week member, Matthew Brumbaugh (Chula Vista, CA) who got Redlands on the board with an RBI-single to left that scored Esteban Nakashima (Riverside, CA).
Max Smyley (Sarasota, CA) kept the line moving with an RBI-single, also to left field, this time driving home Mark Kirkland (Redlands, CA). Then first-year Cade McClelland (Mission Viejo, CA) was able to put the ball in play and that base knock plated Jonah Advincula (Santa Clara, CA) and Brumbaugh was able to score due to an error.
In the sixth Kirkland made it a one-run game with a sacrifice fly to left that scored Jared Anderson (Gilbert, AZ) and that led to Brumbaugh who continued his hot hitting with an RBI triple to the wall in center that tied the game up at six with Nakashima scoring the game-tying run. Advincula then followed with a single to left and that drove home Brumbaugh in what turned out to be the eventual game-winning run.
The Bulldogs added insurance in the sixth when Anderson hit his second home run of the season, a two-run shot that stayed just inside the foul pole. Then in the 8th, UR earned their tenth run of the game thanks to Smyley's sacrifice fly to left that again Brumbaugh was a part of, as he scored from third.
On the mound Jack Brown (San Diego, CA) came in relief and went three scoreless innings as he picked up his first collegiate win. Tyler Reiter (San Diego, CA) followed and got the final six outs, while working around the game-tying run at the plate with the bases loaded in the ninth to secure his first save of the season.
At the plate the Bulldogs continued to shine with 17 more hits, four of them for extra-bases. Anderson (3-for-5, two runs, two RBIs), Nakashima (2-for-5, two runs), Kirkland (2-for-3, a walk, an RBI, and a run), Brumbaugh (3-for-5, three runs, two RBIs, a double, and a triple), Advincula (2-for-4, a walk, run, and RBI), Smyley (2-for-4 with two RBIs), and Max Clark (Fontana, CA - 2-for-4) all had multi-hit days.
The Bulldogs will travel to Claremont, CA for a double-header with the Sagehens tomorrow, Saturday, Februrary 26 with first pitches slated for 11:00am and 2:30pm.