THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -
Dillon Martin was 3-for-4 with five RBI as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps baseball team scored 13 runs in the first three innings and cruised to a 15-6 win over Cal Lutheran in the first of a three-game series on Friday.
With the win, CMS improves to 27-11 overall and 16-6 in the SCIAC, one game ahead of both Pomona-Pitzer and Redlands, which won their series openers on Friday as well. The Stags need to win just one of the two games in tomorrow's doubleheader with Cal Lutheran to secure the top seed in the conference tournament, while two wins would secure the outright regular season title.
Martin got the Stags on the board with a two-run single in the top of the first to start a four-run inning.
Bryce Didrickson and
Alex Henderson led off with singles, and after they moved up a base on a groundout, Martin pulled a ball through the right side to score them both.
Max Pemberton added an RBI single, and then
Carter Bennett came home on an error.
Cal Lutheran got two runs back in the bottom of the first, but CMS got them right back in the second on another two-run single from Martin. The Stags then broke it open with seven runs in the third, with Martin adding his third run-scoring single in as many innings.
Didrickson also had an RBI single to start the inning, and after Martin's single,
Carter Bennett singled, Pemberton singled, and
Blaise Heher doubled to drive in runs and make the score 13-2.
Rider Gordon had an RBI single in the eighth, and Bennett added an RBI fielder's choice to cap off the scoring.
Henderson was 4-for-7 on the day as the Stags had 18 hits, with seven players recording multi-hit games.
Parker McGraw threw 5.1 innings of relief to get the win, striking out four and allowing just three hits.
CMS will celebrate its Senior Day tomorrow as it plays a doubleheader against Cal Lutheran at Biola, with a chance to win a regular season league title. The Stags last won the SCIAC Championship in 1990, while finishing as the runner-up six times in the 36 years since, including two seasons ago in 2024.
