MEDFORD, Mass. –
Alex Henderson hit a two-run homer in the fifth to start the comeback, and the CMS bullpen threw 7.1 innings of two-hit relief, as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps baseball team rallied from an early 3-0 deficit to earn a 6-3 victory over Kean to win the NCAA Regional at Medford and advance to the Super Regionals for the second straight season.
Keegan Cabrera and
Josh Jacobs had clutch pinch-hit RBI doubles in the sixth and eighth for CMS, which improves to 34-13 on the year and will advance to play Johns Hopkins next Friday and Saturday in the Super Regionals. Kean, which defeated Mitchell and Tufts yesterday after falling to CMS in the first game of the regionals to stay alive, ends its season at 31-13-1.
The Stags fell behind 3-0 after the second inning, and didn't have much going offensively until the fifth, when Didrickson drew a walk and came home in front of a long homer from Henderson, his 19th of the season, which leaves him one shy of the single-season record of 20, set two years ago by
Andrew Mazzone.
Carter Bennett then threw a runner out at the plate to keep it a 3-2 game in the top of the sixth, after the Cougars got runners on second and third and one out.
Colin McNiven then escaped the inning with a pop up to keep it a one-run game.
Max Pemberton was hit by a pitch to lead off the bottom of the sixth, and was at second base with two outs, when Cabrera pinch hit and came through with a clutch RBI double down the left field line to tie it at 3-3. Didrickson then drove one opposite field into the left-center field gap to plate Cabrera with the go-ahead run.
Jett Shue had a diving catch of a one-out liner at third base in the top of the seventh, and
Brayden Thomas finished off a 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout. The Stags then added an insurance run in the bottom of the seventh on a
Blaise Heher sacrifice fly, after
Rider Gordon and
Carter Bennett set the table with singles and Pemberton was hit by a pitch for the second time.
Thomas allowed only a two-out hit by pitch in the eighth, deflecting a chopper up the middle for the final out, turning it into a 1-6-3 grounder to Martin. In the bottom half, Didrickson had a double into left-center, and after Henderson was intentionally walked for the second time,
Josh Jacobs had a pinch-hit RBI double in the eighth to make it 6-3.
Jacob Young then came on for the second save of the weekend, working a 1-2-3 ninth on three grounders.
Carter Bennett handled a high chopper at second for the first out, Shue made a difficult backhand pick of a two-hopper for the second out, and then Shue charged a grounder for the final out to send CMS to the Supers.
Bryant Smaaladen worked a hitless third,
Parker McGraw threw the fourth and fifth, allowing one hit. McNiven came out of the bullpen in the sixth to get the Stags out of a jam and get the win, Thomas threw two innings of hitless relief, and Young worked the ninth for the save to finish off an impressive all-staff win on the mound.
Didrickson was 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI, and
Rider Gordon was 2-for-3 at the plate for CMS, which used strong pitching and timely hitting to win low-scoring games at this year's regional. CMS won its first-ever regional last year at Wisconsin-La Crosse, scoring 68 runs in five games to advance to the Super Regionals at Endicott.
After winning the Medford Regional, the Stags this time will head to Johns Hopkins, hoping to advance to nationals in Eastlake, Ohio from May 28-June 4.
