THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -
Matthew Bergan and
Parker McGraw combined on a shutout as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps baseball team took the opening game of a doubleheader at Cal Lutheran 2-0 on Saturday before the Kingsmen came back to take the nightcap 4-2.
With the split, the two teams ended up even for second place in the conference standings at 16-8, along with Pomona-Pitzer, which swept Occidental. Pomona-Pitzer earned the No. 2 seed due to the tiebreaker, while CMS will be the No. 3 and Cal Lutheran the No. 4.
CMS also reached the 30-win plateau with the win and took the series from the Kingsmen two games to one, after also winning the first game yesterday. The Stags have only reached 30 wins three times, an even 30 in 1972, and 32 last season.
Bergan allowed five hits, struck out seven and walked none to improve to 4-1 on the year, winning his last three starters with a combined one run allowed, including a complete-game shutout last week against Caltech. McGraw closed out the eighth and ninth for his third save of the year.
Nate Seluga led off the opener with a double down the left field line and came home on a sacrifice fly by
Andrew Mazzone, it what turn out to be all the offense the Stags would need. CMS added an insurance run in the ninth when Mazzone was hit by a pitch, and
Bryce Didrickson drove home pinch-runner
Charlie Kalil with an RBI double.
Cal Lutheran had a leadoff single in the ninth, but McGraw retired two batters by strikeout, including the game-ender, to wrap up the win.
The nightcap was also low scoring, and CMS didn't got on the scoreboard until the eighth inning down 3-0, when
Rider Gordon and
Slader Spoor hit back-to-back home runs to close to within 3-2. Cal Lutheran got one back in the bottom of the eighth, and CMS could only muster a two-out single from
Blaise Heher in the ninth.
Spoor and
Alex Henderson each finished 2-for-3 in the nightcap, while Seluga was 2-for-4 in the opener.
Andrew Blackett (1.2 innings) and
Hamilton Finefrock (2.0 innings) worked shutout relief in the nightcap, with Blackett maintaining his 0.00 ERA through 14 appearances during the regular season.
CMS will face Pomona-Pitzer on Thursday in its first game of the double-elimination tournament, while top-seeded La Verne will face the winner of No. 4 Cal Lutheran and No. 5 Redlands.