AZUSA, Calif. - Carter Bennett had two homers, a double, and four RBI, Dillon Martin had a homer, two doubles, and four RBI, and Andrew Mazzone added a homer and three RBI as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps baseball team took a 13-9 win over Cal Lutheran in the first of a three-game series on Friday at the Cougar Baseball Complex. 

With the win, CMS moves into a three-way to for second place in the SCIAC at 15-7, while improving its overall record to 29-9. Cal Lutheran falls to 25-11 with the loss, and falls into a tie with the Stags for 15-7 in the SCIAC. 

Heading into the final day of the regular season, CMS can still finish anywhere from first to fifth in the SCIAC standings. The top five teams receive bids to the SCIAC Tournament, with the top seed earning the right to host every game it plays in, and the fourth and fifth seeds having to play a single elimination game on Wednesday. 

The Stags had visions of enforcing the run rule, leading 12-3 in the bottom of the sixth with the bases loaded and nobody out, but didn't push across the extra run to stretch the margin to 10, and had to hold off a late Kingsmen rally for the 13-9 victory. 

CMS trailed 3-2 in the bottom of the fourth, when Bennett hit the first of his two homers to tie it, after starting the scoring with an RBI double in the first. With two outs, Martin hit a three-run bomb to put the Stags in front to stay. 

Nate Seluga had an RBI single in the fifth to stretch the lead to 7-3, and the Stags then added five more in the sixth. Alex Henderson singled, and Mazzone followed with a long ball to push the lead to 9-3. Bryce Didrickson then walked, Blaise Heher doubled, and after a passed ball brought one run home, Bennett hit his second homer of the day to stretch the lead to 12-3. 

CMS loaded the bases with nobody out, before Cal Lutheran was able to escape with no further damage. The Kingsmen then closed to within 12-9 with five runs in the eighth, but Seluga was hit by a pitch and came hme on a two-out RBI double from Martin to give CMS some extra breathing room. Hamilton Finefrock then came in to finish it off in the ninth, with a little help from the defense, as Nate Seluga's relay throw from right field to Dillon Martin enabled Martin to gun a runner out trying to go from first to third on a single. 

Slader Spoor also had a multi-hit game for CMS, going 2-for-5, as the Stags had 15 hits as a team. Andrew Blackett had an inning of shutout relief to get the win, improving to 5-0 this season with a 0.00 ERA in 13 appearances. 

The two teams will complete their three-game series tomorrow with a doubleheader at Cal Lutheran, starting at 11 a.m., as they will jockey for postseason seeding. La Verne needs to win one of two against Redlands to clinch the top seed, with CMS, Pomona-Pitzer and Cal Lutheran all tied for second (Pomona-Pitzer has the tiebreaker with both CMS and Cal Lutheran, while CMS would have the tiebreaker with Cal Lutheran with a split tomorrow).