Relentless Offense Carries CMS Baseball Past Chapman in Series Finale

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Evan Kelly was 3-for-4, including a go-ahead three-run homer in the fifth to put the Stags ahead to stay, as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps baseball team capped off its series with Chapman with a 14-6 win on Sunday afternoon at Arce Field.

With the win, CMS moves to 8-4 on the year and 1-2 in the SCIAC, after falling in the first two games of the Chapman series in close fashion. The Panthers (6-4), who captured the 2019 national championship in the last full season of competition, won the series opener on Friday in Orange 3-1 with two runs in the eighth, and came back yesterday from a 6-0 deficit to take a 7-6 win on a go-ahead run in the ninth. 

The second game of the Saturday doubleheader was postponed until today due to rain, and the Stags got their bats working overnight, putting up multiple runs in their last six innings, with two runs in the third, two in the fourth, three in the fifth, three in the sixth, two in the seventh, and two in the eighth to pull away for the win. 

In addition to the 3-for-4 from Kelly, William DeForest was 3-for-5 with three runs scored, and Tyler Shaw was 2-for-3 with two runs, two RBI, two walks and a sacrifice fly. Nick Wilson and Julian Sanders also had two RBI. Nick Dazell pitched to one batter and got the win in relief, while Luke Summers threw three solid innings in the sixth, seventh and eighth, allowing just one hit and striking out three. Spencer McCann worked a 1-2-3 ninth to end it. 

The big blow came in the bottom of the fifth after Chapman had pushed across two runs in the top half to take a 5-4 lead. An error started the rally, and Cade Kritsch had a pinch-hit single to put runners on first and third with one out. Kelly then got a hold of one and put it over the left-center field fence for his first round-tripper of the year and give CMS the lead for good at 7-5. 

Summers came on in the sixth and walked the first batter, but retired the next two by strikeout and ended the inning with a fly ball. CMS then added three more in the bottom half, as Wilson walked, stole second and came home on a wild pitch. Kritsch had an RBI single to make it 9-5, and then got caught in a deliberate rundown stealing second, while Jack Potter raced home from third to tack on an insurance run. 

Shaw and Wilson each had RBI doubles in the seventh to make it a 12-5 CMS lead, and after Chapman got one run back in the eighth, Shaw had a sacrifice fly and Marco Castillo had an RBI double to close out the scoring. 

Sanders started the scoring in the bottom of the third with a two-run double to straightaway center field to make it 2-0. Chapman came back with three in the top of the fourth, but DeForest tied it with a single up the middle to score Kelly, then came home on a sacrifice fly by Wilson.

CMS will be back in action this weekend when it travels to the Tucson Invitational to face Aurora, Hamline and Buena Vista before returning to SCIAC play against La Verne at home on Friday, March 18.