Walkoff homerun in the 11th breaks winless streak
| Final (11) | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Ithaca | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 12 | 2 |
|
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 13 | 4 |
CLAREMONT, Calif. – In the bottom of the 11th inning with Michael Gose on first base, Trey Smith hit a towering walk-off homer to give the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps baseball team its first win of the 2015 season.
As the innings wore on and Ithaca's bats were stifled, the Stags' offense chipped away, scoring in six of the 11 innings. Nolan Anderson scored Gose with a double down the right field line in the fifth and then Robby Weissenfels knocked in Jack Witte in the eighth.
Coming into the bottom of the ninth, CMS trailed by just one run after being down 6-1 in the second.
Andrew Burgard got on with a one out bunt single. The speedy Burgard stole second base, putting him in position to advance to third on Smith's infield single. A clutch RBI hit by Anderson plated Burgard to tie up the game and send it into extra innings.
Each team got a runner into scoring position in the tenth but was unable to capitalize.
The Bombers ended their five-inning scoring drought through a sacrifice fly by Cooper Belyea. Then, Stags' reliever Traven Tapson induced a fly out to Burgard in left center field to end the inning.
CMS was right where it wanted to be in its batting order – at the top. The 1-2-3-4 hitters were 10-for-19 on the day with six extra base hits. Gose got on with a one-out single and Smith sailed a 2-1 pitch into the trees past the left field fence for his second bomb of the day and the walk-off win.
Defensively, the Stags got off to a tough start but the pitchers buckled down to give the CMS five consecutive shut down innings. Sam Baughman started in the fourth and then settled in to go three up, three down in the fifth, including a successful pick off at first base. Troy Odo came in in the sixth for two innings, only allowing one hit and striking out three. Zachary Bern took over as the 8th inning man and induced a pair of fly outs to keep the Bombers scoreless and then Tapson entered in the ninth, only for the Stags to tie up the game and play two extra innings. Tapson maintained outstanding poise and earned his first win on the season.
Including the two shots on the day, Smith jumps to second in the SCIAC with six homers on the season.
CMS next faces Chapman (7-5, 5-4 SCIAC) in a three game series beginning on Friday in Orange and then hosting the double header on Saturday, Mar. 14.
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