PASADENA, Calif. - With just three series to go before Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) round-robin play begins, No. 6 Cal Lutheran vaulted into at least a tie for first place of the league standings after sweeping a doubleheader with Caltech Saturday. In game one, CLU used a nine-run third inning to cruise to a 17-3 victory and then Atherton Kniseley was a single short of the cycle in game two as the Kingsmen won 13-0 in seven innings.
Cal Lutheran actually trailed the Beavers 1-0 through the first two innings before breaking the game open in the top of the third. Nico Filice led things off by getting hit by a pitch and then Spencer DuBois gave CLU runners on first and second after singling. Filice scored on a Justin Cana RBI-single and then DuBois came home after Nicho DellaValle tallied CLU's third straight base-hit. Following DellaValle, Kyle Sanchez walked and then Collin Crowl plated two when he lifted a single into right field. Later in the inning, Davey Casciola would add a run-scoring single before DuBois and Gabe Gunter both had sacrifice flies. Cana gave CLU its ninth run of the inning when he blasted an two-out RBI single, his second of the inning, into right field and scored Filice.
CLU added a run in the fifth, two in the seventh and then put the game completely out of reach with five in the top of the eighth. DellaValle led off the inning with a single and then later advanced to third on a base-hit from Craig Jacobson. Ramsey Abushahla drove in the first run of the inning when he lifted a fly ball into the outfield but the Caltech outfielder was unable to come up with, allowing Austin Kay who was pinch-running for DellaValle, to score. After a Crowl single, Nick Cohan scored Jacobson on a sacrifice fly before Filice had a two-run single and put CLU up 17-3.
Trey Saito (2-0) earned the win after pitching 5.0 innings while giving up three runs on four hits and striking out three. Landry Kiabu and Tyler Nevins combined to throw 3.0 shutout innings in relief.
Game two saw CLU get off to better start as it scored eight runs through the first four innings.
The Kingsmen scored a run in the top of the first when Cana doubled to lead off the game and then promptly came home on a DellaValle RBI single.
Kniseley tripled to start the top of the second and then scored on a Cohan sacrifice fly.
Cal Lutheran scored two unearned runs in the top of the third and then put up four more in the top of the fourth. Cohan led off the inning with a double then Jacobson singled. Following Jacobson, the Kingsmen scored three runs on back-to-back doubles from Chris Whitmer and DellaValle.
After being held scoreless in the fifth and sixth, Kniseley homered in the second at-bat of the seventh inning to get the CLU offense rolling again. Cohan followed Kniseley's home run with a single and then Sinjin Todd and Kay both reached to load the bases. Aaron Graef then stepped up and delivered a pinch-hit two-RBI double to give the Kingsmen their fifth run of the inning.
Mitchell Shields (1-0) got the start on the mound and pitched 5.0 scoreless innings while allowing just two hits. Cam Adams came on in relief in the sixth and threw two more scoreless innings to seal the shutout.
Cal Lutheran (20-5, 12-3 SCIAC) will be back in action on Friday, April 4, when it begins its three-game series with Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. The series opener will begin at 3:00 p.m. at Ullman Stadium.
Game 1 Box: CLU 17 CIT 3 (8 innings)
Game 2 Box: CLU 13 CIT 0 (7 innings)
CLU Twitter: https://twitter.com/clusports
Follow Nicho: @CLUBaseball
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clusports
CLU Instagram: http://instagram.com/clusports#
