THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - After a week off from Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) competition, the No. 18 Cal Lutheran baseball team picked up where it left off with a 13-1 mercy-rule rout over Caltech on Friday afternoon at Ullman Stadium.
With the win, the Kingsmen have now won 10 straight conference games and hold on a slim lead on first place in the SCIAC.
After a scoreless first, CLU broke through with four runs in the second inning, and piled on five more in the third to take an early 9-0 lead.
Weston Clark and Brad Fullerton got the rally started with back-to-back singles and Clark came around to score later in the frame on a groundout by Cheynne Giles. Trey Saito followed with an RBI triple, Austin Kay roped an RBI double off the left field fence and Max Weinstein capped off the scoring in the second with an RBI single.
In the third, the Violet and Gold took advantage of three straight walks to start the inning before an RBI single from Giles and a two-RBI double off the bat of Saito made it 7-0. With two outs and the bases still loaded, Gabe Gunter grounded a ball through the right side to bring home two more runs.
The Beavers avoided the shutout by scraping across a run in the fourth, but CLU responded with three runs in the bottom half of the inning to take a 12-1 lead. Clark led off with a double and was cashed in on the fourth RBI from Saito in the game. Weinstein added a sac fly in the inning and Sinjin Todd drove in a run with a single to left.
In the fifth, the Kingsmen added one more run on a Cortez Espinoza sac fly.
Marshall Pautsch (5-2) picked up the win after tossing a complete game while scattering eight hits, allowing one earned run and striking out six.
Saito and Clark both went 3-for-3 with three runs while Saito added four RBIs and was a homerun short of the cycle. Giles went 2-for-3 with two runs and two RBIs while Kay also added two hits to improve his hitting streak to 10 games. Kay has now reached base in 23 straights games and has a hit in 22 of them. Daniel Stauffer made his CLU debut and tallied his first career hit in the game.
Cal Lutheran (24-9, 14-5 SCIAC) continues the series with a doubleheader at Caltech tomorrow, Apr. 22 beginning at 11:00 a.m.
Box Score: CLU 13, CIT 1
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