Justin Hull Improves to 8-1 as CMS Baseball Defeats Caltech

PASADENA, Calif. - Junior starting pitcher Justin Hull tossed his third straight complete game, allowing just two earned runs, as the CMS baseball team took an 8-3 win over Caltech on Friday afternoon at North Field to close the gap towards earning a possible SCIAC playoff bid.

Hull improves to 8-1 on the year with the win, allowing two earned runs or less in nine of his 11 starts, while junior outfielder Henri Levenson was 3-for-5 with three RBI at the plate. The Stags improve to 16-12-1 overall and 9-10 in the SCIAC, pulling within two games of Occidental in fourth place at 11-8 after the Tigers lost to Cal Lutheran (CMS would hold the tiebreaker with Oxy after winning the head-to-head series two games to one). Caltech slips to 8-21 and 5-14 in the SCIAC with the loss. 

Sophomore second baseman Patrick Gavin drove home the first run of the day in the third on an RBI single to plate junior outfielder Kevin Nakahara, who led off with a walk and stole second. Levenson then plated Gavin with an RBI single to make the score 2-0. 

CMS added two more runs in the fifth on a bases-loaded two-run single from Levenson, scoring senior third baseman Ryan Motter and junior shortstop Zach Clarke, who started the inning with a hit by pitch and a single, respectively. Nakahara walked and stole second again in the sixth, and came home on a Clarke RBI single to stretch the lead to 5-0. 

Caltech got on the board in the bottom of the sixth inning when Mitchell Watson's fly ball to center fell in for a triple to score two runs, but CMS answered right back with two in the seventh on an RBI triple from junior catcher Truman Miller, who then came home on an RBI single from Motter, pushing the lead to 7-2. Watson had his third RBI of the day for Caltech in the eighth on a solo homer, but CMS got that one back in the ninth on an RBI groundout from senior Jack Savard. 

Levenson had his third three-hit game in SCIAC play this season, along with 3-for-5 efforts against Whittier and Redlands. Sophomore Carson Bridges was 2-for-2 off the bench, earning a pinch-hit single in the seventh and a double and runs cored in the ninth. 

The two teams will complete their three-game series with a doubleheader tomorrow at 11 a.m. at Arce Field, where the Stags could potentially pull themselves into playoff position heading into the final weekend with a sweep (and a Cal Lutheran sweep of Occidental).