LA CROSSE, Wisc. – Andrew Mazzone was 6-for-6 with two homers and six RBI, including a grand slam to break both an 8-8 tie and the program's career home run record with his 37th, as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps baseball team advanced through to tomorrow's regional finals with a 22-8 win over Buena Vista on Saturday evening.

Alex Henderson added a 6-for-7, 6-RBI performance, including four RBI in a 10-run ninth inning (on a two-run homer and a two-run double) that salted the win away. CMS fell in the first game of the day to host Wisconsin-LaCrosse 8-6, after the Eagles rallied from a 6-1 deficit in the fifth.

With the 1-1 day, CMS now stands at 33-13 on the year, breaking the program record for wins in a season, set last season when the Stags reached the NCAA Regional Finals at East Texas Baptist. The win over Buena Vista advances CMS through to the regional final for the second year in a row, after the Stags made their first NCAA appearance since 1996 last season. The Stags will face a rematch with Wisconsin-La Crosse, needing to beat the Eagles twice to advance to the Super Regionals, while Buena Vista sees its season end at 33-12.

Steve Uejio, who was inducted into the CMS Hall of Fame in January, held the old program record of 36 career home runs during his career from 1997-2000. Mazzone, who joined the program last year, set a single-season record with 20, shattering the old mark of 13 set the year before by Julian Sanders.

Mazzone, who missed three weeks with a knee injury this year, came into the regionals with 13 on the year, still needing three just to tie the CMS record. He homered twice in a 23-3 win over Buena Vista on Friday, and then hit two more against the Beavers to reach 37 in just two campaigns.

Bryant Smaaladen earned the win with a clutch performance out of the bullpen, coming in during a tight game and throwing five innings of shutout relief, striking out five and allowing three hits. Max Buchanan finished it off by pitching the ninth, allowing no hits and striking out the last two batters. 

CMS used a six-run second inning to go ahead 6-1, capped by a two-run homer from Mazzone. Blaise Heher tied it with an RBI double to score Carter Bennett, and after an RBI grounder from Slader Spoor, Henderson continued his torrid regional with a two-run single to make it a 4-1 game. Mazzone then followed with a two-run shot to tie the CMS career record with his 36th..

However, Buena Vista responded with the next seven runs of the game to go ahead 8-6 through three innings. The Stags wasted no time pulling even, as Henderson singled with one out, Mazzone doubled, and Bryce Didrickson and Rider Gordon had back-to-back RBI singles to knot the score.

The big blow then came in the fifth, with Mazzone turning an 8-8 tie into a 12-8 lead with one record-breaking swing. Heher led off with a double, and Spoor and Dillon Martin both walked to load the bases with nobody out. After the Eagles retired Henderson for the only time in seven tries, Mazzone went yard over the center field fence to give the Stags the lead for good. 

Smaaladen then locked things down with five innings of crucial shutout relief, preserving both the win and the rest of the Stags bullpen for Sunday's regional final.   

CMS was able to take any pressure off in the bottom of the ninth, scoring 10 runs to finish off the 22-8 win. Henderson started the deluge with a two-run homer, his fifth of the weekend, and then added a two-run double in his second at-bat of the inning. Senior Derek Seneker, who pinch-ran for Mazzone after Mazzone singled to go 6-for-6, followed with a three-run bomb to cap the 10-run inning.  

In the opening game, Bennett had two homers, a double, and five RBI in the first five innings to help stake the Stags to an early 6-1 lead, but Wisconsin-La Crosse chipped away and earned an 8-6 win, completing the comeback with three runs in the bottom of the eighth.

Bennett hit a two-run homer in the second to put CMS up 2-1, and after Henderson hit his fourth round-tripper of the regionals, following a three-homer game on Friday, to put the Stags ahead 3-1, Bennett then his second of the game in the fourth to stretch the lead to 4-1. He then tacked on a two-run double in the sixth to score Mazzone and Bryce Didrickson to give CMS a five-run lead.

The Eagles got those two runs back in the bottom of the fifth, and then tacked on one in the sixth and one in the seventh to get back within 6-5, before winning it with a three-run eighth, the last two coming on a two-out, two-run single from Andre Rajkovich.

CMS will need to beat Wisconsin-La Crosse twice tomorrow to advance through to the regional finals, while the Eagles will only need to win once. The Stags have already broken the program record for wins in a season, and have now increased their win total from the year before in all eight full seasons of head coach Bill Walkenbach's tenure. He took over in 2016 after the Stags won seven games in 2015, and CMS has since picked up 11, 16, 18, 29, 24, 28, 32 and 33 wins over the last eight full years (not counting a 2020 season cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic).