CMS Baseball Selected to Finish Fifth in SCIAC, Hosts Pacific (Ore.) on Friday to Open 2020 Season
CLAREMONT, Calif. – The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps baseball team today was selected to finish fifth in the SCIAC as voted on by the league's member head coaches. The Stags begin the 2020 campaign on Friday, Feb. 7 against Pacific (Ore.) with first pitch scheduled for 2 p.m. at Arce Field.
The Stags finished fifth in the conference last season with a 12-12 record and a 19-14-1 overall record. CMS just missed out on the conference tournament after finishing three games back of Cal Lutheran for the final postseason spot. Last season marked another year of noted improvement in the win column after finishing below the .500 mark with a 18-22 record in 2018. The Stags 12-win mark in SCIAC play was the most wins since 2011 when that squad won 17 conference games. Since 2016, the CMS baseball team has continually grown its win number from 16 during the 2017 season to 19 a season ago and is knocking on the door of the SCIAC tournament this season with noteworthy wins over Chapman and Occidental last year.
Senior starting pitcher Justin Hull returns to the lead the squad after having a stellar year in 2019. Hull led the team in numerous categories including innings-pitched (84.1), wins (8), complete games (3), strikeouts (67), and held the lowest ERA on the team amongst starting pitchers (2.45). Hull tossed three consecutive complete games from April 12 to April 26, the streak started with a stellar outing against eventual DIII National Champion, Chapman University, where he allowed one earned run on three hits with five strikeouts to hold the Panthers down in a 2-1 win. His consistency led to his dominance allowing two runs or fewer in eight of his 12 starts while recording at least five strikeouts in nine of those starts. Hull earned First-Team All-SCIAC honors as well as D3baseball.com All-West Region Third-Team and ABCA All-West Region Third Team selections in the process and is expected to be the leader of the pitching staff once again this season.
Senior shortstop Zach Clarke is expected to set the tone for the Stags at the plate after having a breakout season in 2019. Clarke set new career highs in batting average (.414, SCIAC-best), on-base percentage (.469), and slugging percentage (.609) as he paced the SCIAC with the highest batting average in the conference. Clarke led the Stags with 55 hits, five home runs, and 23 RBI during his standout year at the plate. He was a consistent presence in the batting order, hitting third for most of the season and led the team with 133 at-bats as well as doubles with 11.
CMS saw the graduation of two mainstays in the starting lineup from 2019, including Rawlings Gold Glove award winner at third base Ryan Motter as well as outfielder CJ Novogradac. Outside of those two departures, the Stags return an experienced roster featuring five of their top-seven batting leaders returning. Senior outfielder Kevin Nakahara returns to the top of the lineup after a solid 2019 season. Nakahara hit .293 (34-116) with a team-leading seven stolen bases (career-high) and seven doubles (career-high) with one home run alongside 13 RBI. He played in 30 games, despite being hampered by injuries, and set a new career-best on-base percentage (.397) in the process. Senior outfielder Henri Levenson played 33 games a season ago and finished second on the team in RBI (22). Levenson finished the season with hits in five of his last six games.
Sophomore infielder Marco Castillo hit .298 during his first year with the club and can play both corner infielder positions. Castillo appeared in 34 games last season, the most of any first year, and finished fourth on the team in RBI (14). Sophomore infielder Evan Kelly played in 12 games last year and hit .304 over 23 at-bats with seven hits, one double, one home run, and three RBI and brings versatility to the depth of available infielder/outfielders for Head Coach Bill Walkenbach and staff. Walkenbach enters his fifth season at the helm of the CMS baseball team. Over his four previous seasons, he has improved the Stags' win total and winning percentage in each season. He took a team that won just seven games in 2015 to a 19-win club in 2019.
As always, pitching will play a big role in a teams' success and the Stags feature a stable of talented arms that include seniors Cameron Cash and Konnor Kwok, juniors Nico Mannucci and Brandon Mitchell, and sophomores Josh Cordova, Spencer McCann, Diego Avila, and Nick Dazell returning to bolster a staff that finished sixth in the conference in ERA (4.49) and tied for third in earned runs (145) with Cal Lutheran.
Mitchell posted career-highs in innings pitched (56.2), and a career-best ERA (2.54) while earning a 4-2 record. He moved into the starting rotation after making four appearances out of the bullpen. The sophomore from Edmonds, Washington is expected to be a front-line weekend starter. The pitching staff will be supported by an experienced catcher as Truman Miller returns for his senior season. Miller played in 29 games last season, all at catcher, and hit .261 (23-88) in his first full season with the Stags after transferring from Bellevue Community College. Lalo Beron will return for his sophomore season after limited action in his first year. The Crespi Carmelite product recorded two hits in three games last season and enters the year as a solid backup, spot starter at catcher.
The Stags welcome six first-years into the fold. First Baseman Miles Cook from Rancho Bernardo school, Catcher/infielder William DeForest out of Lakeside High School, Pitcher Justin Esters from Agoura HS, Pitcher/outfielder Jarrett Korson out of Santiago high, outfielder/first baseman Cade Kritsch from high school baseball powerhouse, Westlake, and shortstop Nick Wilson from Irvington High in Northern California. Outfielder Andrew Shults has joined the Stags as a Grad-Transfer after playing three seasons at Division III Grinnell College in the Midwest Conference located in Grinnell, Iowa. Schults hit .387 for his career with the Pioneers and brings some experienced depth to the outfield with 96 collegiate games under his belt.
CMS baseball opens the 2020 season with three Northwest Conference opponents including Pacific (Ore.) on Feb. 7, Lewis & Clark on Feb. 8, and Puget Sound on Feb. 9. The Stags then begin SCIAC play with a three-game series against Cal Lutheran on Feb. 21-22. To find the CMS baseball schedule click here and to find the full 2020 roster click here.
The full release of the preseason SCIAC poll can be found here.
2020 SCIAC Preseason Poll
1. Chapman (7) - 79 points
2. Occidental (2) - 65 points
3. La Verne - 61 points
4. Cal Lutheran - 58 points
5. CMS - 43 points
6. Pomona-Pitzer - 40 points
7. Redlands - 29 points
8. Whittier - 21 points
9. Caltech - 9 points
CMS Baseball Sights and Sounds