CMS Baseball Hangs on For 10-9 Win over Cal Lutheran, Stays Alive in SCIAC Tournament

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Parker McGraw, who started for the Stags yesterday in the first round of the SCIAC Tournament, came out of the bullpen to get the final two outs with runners on second and third as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps baseball team held on to take a 10-9 win over Cal Lutheran in an elimination game on Friday at Pomona-Pitzer's Alumni Field.

With the win, CMS moves to 29-12 on the year, its highest win total since the 1972 team won 30 games. It is also the first postseason win for the Stags since the 1996 team went five games in the NCAA Regionals, also against Cal Lutheran. CMS didn't qualify for the SCIAC Postseason Tournament until last year, when it went 0-2. Cal Lutheran ends its season at 28-14 with the loss. 

In a bit of a reversal from the norm, Hamilton Finefrock, who was a second-team All-SCIAC selection as a reliever, made his first career start and went six innings to get the win. McGraw, who became the CMS No. 1 starter by March, finished the game and got the save. 

CMS fell behind 3-0, 4-1 and 5-2, and then used a six-run fourth inning to pull ahead 8-5, capped off by a three-run homer from Adam Dapkewicz. Tyler Shaw drove in the first run with a sacrifice fly, Julian Sanders doubled in a run to make it 5-4, and Jack Potter drove home the tying run with an RBI groundout. 

Bryce Didrickson added a sacrifice fly in the seventh to make it 9-5, and Shaw went the other way for an RBI single with two out to push the lead to 10-5.

Cal Lutheran, though, was able to push four across in the top of the eighth to close the gap to 10-9, and a Blake Wink one-out double put runners on second and third with one out. McGraw came out of the bullpen and got Kai Caranto to ground out to Shaw to hold the runner, and then was able to get Lucas Danielewicz looking for strike three to end the contest. 

Shaw was 3-for-4 with two RBI, Potter finished 3-for-5, and Sanders and Dapkiewicz were each 2-for-5. Finefrock came into the game with an 0.64 ERA as a reliever, and saw it go up after allowing five earned runs over six innings, but he battled after a three-run first inning to get the first postseason win for the Stags in 28 years. 

CMS will face La Verne next tomorrow morning at 11:30 in another elimination game, with the winner advancing to face Pomona-Pitzer at 2:30. Whoever faces the Sagehens will have to beat them twice, with the second game coming on Sunday, if necessary.