CMS Baseball Wins La Verne Series, Takes Third Seed in SCIAC Tournament

LA VERNE, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps baseball team earned a 12-10 win over La Verne in the rubber game of a three-game series, after dropping the first game of the doubleheader 9-5, to conclude the regular season in third place in the SCIAC on Saturday afternoon at Ben Hines Field.

With the split, CMS ends the regular season at 28-11 and 16-8 in the SCIAC, while La Verne finishes the regular season at 26-11-1 and 18-6 in the SCIAC. The Stags came into the day with a chance to catch the Leopards with a sweep, after taking the opening game of the series yesterday 7-6, but the Leopards were able to win the first game of the doubleheader to secure the regular season title and the top seed in the SCIAC Tournament. 

CMS trailed 7-1 in the opener heading into the sixth, with the only run coming on a Blaise Heher home run n the fifth, but the Stags were able to inch closer, as Bryce Didrickson had an RBI grounder and Heher added a sacrifice fly in the sixth.

In the seventh, Adam Dapkewicz, who won the series opener on Friday with a two-out RBI single in the ninth, hit a sacrifice fly to help close it to 7-5. CMS then loaded the bases with nobody out in the eighth, but couldn't score, and La Verne tacked on two insurance runs in the bottom half. 

Dillon Martin was 3-for-5 in the opener, and Jack Potter was 2-for-4. Stryker Scales threw 1.1 innings of shutout relief. 

In the nightcap, Dapkewicz broke a 10-10 tie in the top of the eighth inning with a two-out RBI double, and Andrew Mazzone added an insurance run in the top of the ninth with an RBI single. Henry Connell finished off a three-inning shutout relief stint to get the win in the bottom of the ninth, getting the last two outs on a double play grounder to Tyler Shaw at shortstop. 

CMS trailed 6-3 in the fifth, before Martin hit a two-run triple and came home on a wild pitch to tie it. La Verne went back ahead 8-6 in the sixth, but CMS scored four times in the seventh, with Didrickson breaking an 8-8 tie with a two-out RBI single, and Heher adding another RBI single. 

Heher finished 4-for-5 in the nightcap, while Sanders was 3-for-6 with three runs scored. Hamilton Finefrock threw 1.2 innings of shutout relief, after getting the win yesterday with 3.2 innings of shutout relief, finishing the regular season with an 0.64 ERA in 28.1 innings of work. 

CMS will play at Pomona-Pitzer on Thursday in the first game of the SCIAC double-elimination tournament, before the action shifts to La Verne from Friday-Sunday. The Sagehens took the regular season series from CMS two games to one.