ORANGE, Calif. – Kody Perry threw a complete-game four-hit shutout with 11 strikeouts, striking out the side in the ninth to finish it off, as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps baseball team captured a 3-0 win over Chapman in the SCIAC series opener between the teams on Friday at Hart Park.

CMS improves to 5-2 on the season and 3-1 in the league with the win. Perry, meanwhile, improves to 3-0 on the year with 19 innings pitched and no runs allowed, after starting the season with five shutout innings in series-opening wins over Mary Hardin-Baylor and Occidental. Chapman slips to 2-5 overall and 1-3 in SCIAC play with the loss.

The Stags got on the board in the first inning, as Alex Henderson pulled a double down the right field line with one out, and came home on a two-out RBI single from Dillon Martin. Henderson then extended the lead to 2-0 with an RBI single in the second, plating Max Pemberton, who had a one-out single.

In the fifth, Henderson walked to start the inning, and then came home on a throwing error after going from first to third on a single to right field from Rider Gordon.

Perry allowed just one baserunner through the first four innings, which came on a two-out double in the second, but he responded with a strikeout to get out of the inning unscathed. He allowed a one-out single in the fifth, with the runner moving up to third with two outs, but again he picked up a strikeout to leave a runner in scoring position.  

Chapman was able to pick up a leadoff single in the seventh, but Gordon started a 5-4-3 double play to empty the bases again and Perry ended the inning with a strikeout. The eighth inning followed a similar pattern, as a leadoff infield single was erased by a 3-6-1 double play started by Henderson with Perry covering first, and then Perry got the last out via his eighth strikeout.

Perry ended six of his innings with strikeouts, including the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth in the final five frames. He struck out 11 without walking a batter, improving to 23 strikeouts and four walks on the young season. Henderson and Martin each finished the game 2-for-4 at the plate. 

The two teams will continue their three-game series tomorrow with a doubleheader at Azusa Pacific at 11 a.m.