CMS Baseball Sweeps Series from Pomona-Pitzer with 6-5, 16-4 Road Wins

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps baseball team scored twice in the ninth for a 6-5 comeback win in the opener, and Paul Roche hit two homers and had five RBI in a 16-4 win in the nightcap, as it took both ends of a doubleheader and all three games in the series from Pomona-Pitzer on Saturday.

With the sweep, CMS moves to 11-4 overall and 5-1 in the SCIAC after taking two out of three from Chapman last weekend, and all three from the Sagehens this weekend, which were two of the teams who reached the NCAA Tournament out of the SCIAC last year. Pomona-Pitzer slips to 1-4 in the SCIAC and 7-7 overall with the two losses. 

CMS led 4-3 in the first game, before Pomona-Pitzer scored twice with two outs in the eighth to pull ahead 5-4. Bryce Didrickson led off the top of the ninth with a key walk to roll the order over, and Tyler Shaw followed with a single to put two on with nobody out. One out later, Nick Wilson singled to score Didrickson with the tying run and send Shaw to third with the go-ahead run. After an intentional walk to Julian Sanders, a wild pitch plated Shaw to put CMS back in front 6-5. 

Jake Tracey retired the side in order in the bottom of the ninth to get the win for the Stags. Jarrett Korson started and allowed three runs in six innings, while Hamilton Finefrock threw a scoreless seventh. 

Shaw and Potter were both 3-for-4 in the opener, with Potter hitting an RBI double in the first and Shaw hitting one in the second to stake CMS to an early lead. Wilson had a go-ahead RBI single in the 5th, before his tying single in the ninth. 

In the nightcap, CMS roared out to a 9-0 lead, and withstood a counter-punch from the Sagehens that cut it to 9-4, pulling away for the 16-4 win. Sanders started the scoring with an RBI double in the first and came home in front of the first of two Roche homers. 

In the second, Shaw had an RBI double to make it a 4-0 lead, and Sanders and Roche went back-to-back in a three-run third. In the fourth, Roche stretched his RBI total to five with a two-run double, extending the lead to 9-0. 

Pomona-Pitzer cut it to 9-4 in the bottom of the fourth and had the bases loaded as it threatened for more, but CMS held the Sagehens to just the four runs, until breaking it open with a seven-run eighth. 

Roche finished 4-for-5 with three runs scored and four RBI, Shaw was 4-for-6 with three RBI, and Sanders was 3-for-5 with four RBI, after a two-homer, five-RBI game in the series opener.  He was 8-for-12 with 10 RBI in the series, stretched his hitting streak to 14 games, and raised his batting average to .452 and his slugging percentage to 1.016 on the year. 

Dominic Rolla had a strong performance on the mound to get the win in relief, throwing four innings and allowing just one hit and no runs. 

CMS will be back in action this weekend when it travels to the Tucson Invitational, facing Allegheny, Macalaster and Gustavus Adolphus.