AZUSA, Calif. -
Blaise Heher hit three home runs, including a solo shot to open scoring in the third, a three-run shot to make it 5-0 in the fifth, and a walk-off two-run shot in the bottom of the eighth to give the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps baseball team a 12-1 win over Redlands in an elimination game at the SCIAC Tournament on Friday afternoon.
Josh Jacobs added two homers for the Stags, and
Tegin Maloney allowed just three hits in seven innings while striking out seven. With the win, CMS improves to 30-12 on the year and stays alive in the SCIAC Tournament, where it will take on either La Verne or Pomona-Pitzer at 11 a.m. The Stags will need to win that one, and then win again at 2 p.m. and a third time on Sunday to win the SCIAC title.
The Stags entered the day needing to win four times, but took care of the first rung of that ladder behind Heher, who closed out the regular season with the SCIAC Hitter of the Week Award in a three-game sweep of Cal Lutheran, including a run-rule walk off homer in the series finale.
This time around, Heher started things off with a solo shot to right field in the third. In the fourth,
Rider Gordon,
Dillon Martin and
Carter Bennett strung together three straight singles, and
Max Pemberton made it a 2-0 game with a sacrifice fly. Heher then broke it open with a three-run bomb to right-center, stretching the lead to 5-0, and Jacobs followed with a solo shot to give CMS a 6-0 lead.
Redlands broke through with a solo homer in the top of the seventh off of Maloney, but Jacobs answered that run with his second solo shot of the game in the bottom half to make it 7-1.
Jett Shue doubled,
Alex Henderson had an RBI single and
Dillon Martin hit a two-run shot to make the score 10-1.
Pemberton led off the eighth with a walk, and Heher then ended it with a two-rub blast to left center for his third home run of the contest, and his fifth in the last week, including the Cal Lutheran series.
Heher was 3-for-4 with six RBI, Jacobs was 2-for-3, and Henderson (2-for-3) and Martin (2-for-4) each had two hits as well.
CMS will need to beat both La Verne and Pomona-Pitzer tomorrow to stay alive, with the order to be determined after La Verne and Pomona-Pitzer conclude their second-round game on Friday.
