CMS Baseball Advances to Regional Finals with 6-5 Win over Concordia

MARSHALL, Tex. - Tyler Shaw batted 5-for-6, Dillon Martin broke a 5-5 tie in the eighth with a sacrifice fly, and Hamilton Finefrock shut the door in the eighth and ninth innings as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps baseball team defeated Concordia (Texas) in an elimination game at the NCAA Division III Regionals at East Texas Baptist on Saturday evening.

With the win, CMS moves to 32-14 on the season, extending its school record for wins in a season after setting a new mark with a 10-5 win over Centenary in another elimination game earlier on Saturday. The program record of 30 wins had stood since 1972, while the Stags had not won an NCAA Tournament game since 1996 before picking up two wins this weekend (the 1996 also won twice in a five-game series with Cal Lutheran). 

CMS led 5-0 after six innings, thanks to a stellar start from sophomore Aaron Herst, who allowed only two hits in the first inning, one of which was an infield single up the middle which Shaw fielded behind second base but didn't have time to get the runner, and the other was a bloop that fell in along the right field line. However, Concordia was finally able to string some hits together in the seventh, including a pair of RBI doubles, and the Tornados eventually pulled even at 5-5. 

The Stags responded, though, as Bryce Didrickson led off the eighth with a walk, and then moved to third on a double from Shaw to put runners on second and third and nobody out. A strikeout and a walk loaded the bases for Martin, who was able to drive a ball to deep left field to plate Didrickson with the go-ahead run. 

Finefrock, who started and threw four shutout innings earlier in the day against Centenary, was unable to get the save when he was called on in the seventh with the bases loaded and had the tying run score on a wild pitch, but he stayed in for the eighth and ninth innings. He allowed just a hit-by-pitch to lead off the eighth before retiring the next six batters in order, ending the eighth and ninth with strikeouts. 

CMS scored three runs in the fourth inning on RBI singles from Rider Gordon, Didrickson and Shaw. Julian Sanders tacked on a big two-run single in the sixth inning with two outs to score Shaw and Gordon to push the lead to 5-0.

The Stags had chances to have a larger lead, but didn't capitalize after Shaw and Blaise Heher had back-to-back singles to start the game in the first inning, and Andrew Mazzone was robbed of a two-run homer by a leaping catch over the wall from center fielder Zach Seigrist in the second.

CMS will next face regional host East Texas Baptist tomorrow at 11 a.m. local time (9 a.m. Pacific). The Stags will need to defeat the third-ranked Tigers twice to move on to the Super Regionals, after East Texas Baptist went through the first two days of the regional with a 2-0 record.