MEDFORD, Mass. – Freshman
Tegin Maloney threw his first career complete game, a seven-hitter on 96 pitches, to give the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps baseball team a 5-2 win over Tufts on Saturday afternoon, sending the Stags through to the NCAA Regional finals.
CMS improves to 33-13 on the year and needs one win tomorrow in two tries to win a regional for the second year in a row and advance to next weekend's Super Regionals. Tufts falls to 31-10 and will face Kean later today in an elimination game for the right to advance through to tomorrow.
Rider Gordon had a home run and two RBI, and
Bryce Didrickson added two RBI in support of Maloney, who went the distance to keep the CMS bullpen fresh to try to close it out tomorrow. Maloney allowed only one run in the fifth, and then a two-out RBI single in the ninth before closing it out with a ground ball, finishing the game with seven strikeouts, one walk, and 15 groundouts.
Gordon gave CMS the lead in the top of the first with a two-out solo homer, and Didrickson extended the lead to 2-0 in the fifth with a sacrifice fly. Tufts got a run back with a two-out RBI double in the fifth, and the score remained frozen at 2-1 until a key three-run rally for CMS in the eighth.
Jett Shue started the rally with a double, and Didrickson drove him home with an RBI double. Gordon then had a two-out RBI single for his second RBI of the day to stretch it to 4-1.
Dillon Martin and
Carter Bennett followed with two straight singles to load the bases, and
Max Pemberton was hit by a pitch to make it 5-1.
Blaise Heher nearly broke it wide open, but his liner to right was snagged to get Tufts out of the inning.
With momentum on the side of CMS, and some margin of error to work with, Maloney needed just six pitches to retire Tufts in order in the bottom of the eighth, striking out the final batter on three pitches. A one-out hit-by-pitch put a runner on base, who went to second and came home on an RBI single, but Maloney was able to get the last out to put CMS in the regional finals for the third year in a row.
Two years ago, CMS dropped its opening game and came back through the loser's bracket to reach the regional finals at East Texas Baptist. Last year, the Stags won their opening game, fell to Wisconsin-La Crosse in the winner's bracket, and then won three in a row to get through to the Super Regionals.
The regional finals will start tomorrow at 12 p.m. pacific time (3 p.m. local), with a second game to follow 45 minutes after if necessary. The winner of that one would advance to the Super Regionals against the winner of a bracket at Johns Hopkins, where the host Blue Jays and Pomona-Pitzer are both currently in the winner's bracket.
