CMS Baseball Opens Cal Lutheran Series With Big 5-3 Win

LA MIRADA, Calif. - Parker McGraw threw seven strong innings, allowing four hits and one run, and Andrew Mazzone had a two-run double to key a three-run sixth as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps baseball team earned a 5-3 win over Cal Lutheran in the first game of a three-game series, which was held at Biola University.

With the win, CMS improves its record to 13-2 on the season and an even 2-2 in SCIAC, while Cal Lutheran falls to 10-3 overall and 4-3 in league play. 

McGraw made his first start on Sunday at the Tucson Invitational in a win over Hamline, after coming on in relief in his first four appearances. He hadn't allowed a run in his first 16.1 innings of work as a college pitcher, but finally surrendered one in the second inning on an RBI groundout. That was the only run he would allow, though, as he went seven innings, leaving the bases loaded with a fly ball in the seventh to finish his day of work. 

CMS had three straight singles to open the scoring, as Mazzone singled to left, Sanders singled to third, and Dillon Martin singled to right to plate the first run in the bottom of the first. Bryce Didrickson added an RBI single to score Sanders and make it 2-0. 

With the score still 2-1 in the sixth, CMS gave itself some breathing room with four runs, as Kieran Sidebotham and Adam Dapkiewicz led off with singles, and Riley Gordon followed with an RBI single. One out later, Mazzone plated two with a double to left to make it a 5-1 CMS lead. 

Cal Lutheran put together a two-out rally in the eighth to score two, but Hamilton Finefrock closed the door with a strikeout, then struck out the first two batters in the night before getting the final out on a pop-up.

Mazzone was 2-for-4 with two RBI and Dapkiewicz finished 2-for-3 for the Stags, who had all nine batters in the line-up reach via a hit or walk. 

The two teams will complete the three-game series tomorrow with a doubleheader in Thousand Oaks.