THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - On a beautiful sunny day at George "Sparky" Anderson Field, the No. 5 Cal Lutheran baseball team swept past Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, 8-1 and 12-2, on Saturday afternoon.
The Stags struck first with a run in the top of the second and continued to threaten early on by placing runners on the corners. Starting pitcher Trey Saito was able to get out of the jam by recording his third strike out of the game.
The Kingsmen responded in the fourth inning when Kyle Sanchez led off with a walk and Ramsey Abushahla reached after getting hit by a pitch. Collin Crowl followed with a double down the left field line to score Sanchez, but the ball went out of play before Abushahla could score the tiebreaking run. That play proved to be crucial for the Stags as they got out of a bases loaded jam with a diving catch in left field to save any further Kingsmen runs.
Looking to widen the lead in the fifth, Justin Caña reached base after getting hit by a pitch and Max Price followed with a base hit to centerfield to advance Caña to third with nobody out. After a wild pitch on ball four to Sanchez, Caña rushed home to break the 1-1 tie and Price advanced to third. Abushahla extended the lead to 3-1 with a double down the left field line and Crowl drove in Sanchez with a sacrifice fly to right field. Standing on third base, Abushahla made his way home after a balk by the Stags to give the Kingsmen a 5-1 lead.
In the seventh inning, CLU capitalized on a handful of CMS miscues to score three more runs and take an 8-1 lead. Crowl and Austin Kay added singles in the inning and a passed ball allowed Crowl to come around to score. Chris Whitmer singled home Kay, advanced on a wild pitch, and eventually scored on an error from the Stags third basemen.
Saito improved to 4-0 and lowered his ERA to 1.73 this season after going eight innings and allowing just one earned run while striking out seven.
The Kingsmen finished with 11 total hits and Whitmer, Kay, Caña and Crowl all finished 2-for-4 at the plate.
In game two, Scott Peters got a lot of run support early on and cruised to his fourth win of the season. The senior southpaw went six innings allowing two runs while striking out six.
CLU put up six runs in the top of the first and never looked back to secure the sweep of CMS. The Kingsmen put together four straight hits to drive in runs starting with two-RBI singles from Abushahla and Nick Cohan. Crowl came up and drove home Cohan with a double to left and Kay tripled down the right field line to score Crowl and give CLU an early 6-0 lead.
After the Stags scraped a run across in the second, the Kingsmen came right back in the third with another big inning. Cohan doubled off the right field wall to drive in a run and Crowl followed with a two-RBI single up the middle to give CLU a 9-1 lead.
In the seventh inning, Kay came up with an RBI single and Spencer DuBois drove in two runs with a double to left field to put the Kingsmen up 10 runs, 12-2, and end the game via mercy rule.
Cohan led CLU at the plate going 3-for-3 with three RBI and three runs, while Kay went 3-for-4 with two RBI. Crowl finished 2-for-3 with three RBI and Caña and Abushahla also added two hits in the game.
Cal Lutheran (11-1, 8-1 SCIAC) will return to Ullman Stadium tomorrow, Mar. 8 for a non-conference matchup with Drew (N.J.) at 12:00 p.m.
Box Score: CLU 8, CMS 1
Box Score: CLU 12, CMS 2
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