CMS Baseball Sweeps Occidental, Takes Over Second Place in SCIAC Standings

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Julian Sanders homered in both games to move within one of the CMS single-season record, as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps baseball team swept Occidental 7-6 and 6-2 on Saturday afternoon at Pomona-Pitzer Baseball Stadium.

With the wins, No. 22 CMS improves to 24-7 overall and 11-4 in the SCIAC, two games behind La Verne at 13-2, which CMS meets in two weeks in the final series of the regular season. 

The Stags were in some danger in the opening game, as the Tigers held a 6-5 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh. However, Sanders led off the inning with a solo homer, his 11th of the season, to knot the game up at 6-6. 

In the bottom of the eighth, Tyler Shaw drew a two-out walk, and Jack Potter, who had hit a two-run homer earlier in the game, came through with a clutch double to left to plate Shaw with the go-ahead run. 

Andrew Blackett came on in relief in the ninth, and got two strikeouts, the second of which came with the tying run on second to end the game and earn the save. Hamilton Finefrock threw three innings of relief to get the win, improving to 6-0 on the season. Potter finished 3-for-5 with three RBI at the plate, while Sanders, Potter and William DeForest were each 2-for-4. 

In the nightcap, Sanders started the scoring in the bottom of the first with a two-out solo homer, his 12th of the year, pulling him within one of the school record of 13 held by Tyler Laughery (1997). Kieran Sidebotham was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to score another run in the second, with a third coming home on a passed ball. 

DeForest (third), Sidebotham (fifth) and Mashiko (seventh) each had RBI singles to help stretch the lead to 6-0, before Occidental scored two harmless runs in the ninth to make the final score 6-2. 

Aaron Herst started and went six shutout innings to get the win for the Stags. Sanders was 2-for-4 as CMS managed to score six runs on six hits, taking advantage of five walks and six hit-by-pitches. 

CMS will be back in action next weekend when it plays a three-game series with Caltech, beginning with a home game on Friday at 3 p.m. (at Pomona-Pitzer).