CMS Baseball Drops Close 6-5 Contest to Whitworth in Series Finale

SPOKANE, Wash. - Andrew Mazzone hit a two-run homer in the first inning, his 13th of the season, to help stake the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps baseball team to a 3-0 lead, but Whitworth was able to come back and take a 6-5 win in the rubber game of a three-game series on Sunday.

The loss drops CMS to 18-9 on the season, after winning the first game over Whitworth 15-4, while the Pirates improve to 17-7 after winning two close games to close out the series 7-4 and 6-5. 

Mazzone gave the Stags the early advantage when he homered to score Tyler Shaw, who led off the game with a hit-by-pitch. The homer was his 13th of the year, one shy of the CMS record set last year by current senior Julian Sanders. 

Sanders followed with a double, and came home on an RBI single from Jack Potter to push the lead to 3-0. The Pirates, though, answered with four runs in the third and added two more in the fourth to take a 6-3 lead. 

Blaise Heher hit his first career homer in the sixth to close the deficit to 6-4, and Sanders singled and came home on an error in the seventh to bring the Stags to within one run. CMS had two on in the eighth after a Heher single and an intentional walk to Mazzone, but couldn't plate the tying run, and Whitworth was able to retire the side in order in the ninth for the one-run win. 

Sanders was 3-for-5 with two runs scored, while Mazzone and Heher each finished 2-for-4 to go with their home runs. Aaron Herst threw four innings of shutout relief, allowing three hits and striking out three, to keep the Stags in it. 

CMS will be back in action when it faces Redlands in a three-game series this weekend, including a single game at Redlands on Friday at 3 p.m. and a doubleheader at Azusa Pacific on Saturday at 11 a.m.