REDLANDS, Calif. - The baseball team used a late surge on Saturday morning to earn a 6-5 game one victory over Redlands in league play. Unfortunately, the rubber game of the series went to the Bulldogs by a 9-1 margin at The Yard.

Box Score (Game 1): CLU 6, UR 5 - F
Box Score (Game 2): UR 9, CLU 1 - F

On paper the teams were evenly matched. The Kingsmen and Bulldogs collected 11 and 12 hits, respectively, and combined to use 11 pitchers in the first game of the double header.

After exchanging runs in the second inning, UR added two in the third while CLU had tacked on one more in the top of that frame. Immediately after CLU locked things back up at 3-3 in the top of the sixth, the Bulldogs responded with a pair in the bottom half of the inning to regain a 5-3 lead.

Cal Lutheran remained focused and sent eight men to the plate in the eighth as they tallied four hits. Tyler Kem, who doubled in his first at-bat and scored the initial CLU run, singled to get things going. Kevin Leonard followed suit with a single and Michael Alvarez went in to pinch run. Kevin Eto and Garrett Smith then drew back-to-back walks, the latter plating Kem. Iggy Wagner and Dominick Solley each connected for RBI singles, putting the Kingsmen back on top.

In the bottom of the ninth inning John Leal was a defensive replacement and ultimately came up with a game-saving catch for the final out.

Tyler Hebda took the ball from Chris Park with two down in the eighth and recorded the final four outs for the save. Park earned the victory, appearing for the second time in as many games against UR and threw 2.0 innings, allowing two hits while striking out one.

Wagner was 3-for-4 at the plate with a run and an RBI and Kem was 2-for-4, scoring twice and driving in one.

Defensively Solley had five putouts and Trevor Koons finished with four assists and two putouts.

In the second game, it was more of the same. While the Kingsmen connected for just one hit (nine) less than UR (10) the Bulldogs plated nine men and CLU got just one run. Cal Lutheran left six men in scoring position.

The lone CLU run came by way of a second inning lead-off homerun off the bat of designated hitter Nick DeLorenzo.

Wagner got two more hits, a single and a double, to finish the day 5-for-8 and DeLorenzo added a single to his homerun for a pair of hits. Leal doubled for the only other extra base hit of the day.

In the field Wagner had five putouts in centerfield, Koons had five assists and a putout at shortstop and Smith had four of each at second base.  

John LaMoure was tagged with the loss after allowing six runs on six hits through 4.2 innings.

Cal Lutheran (12-6, 8-4 SCIAC) has a bye week from SCIAC play and will host part of the California Invitational next weekend. On Friday, March 16 the Kingsmen will play Eastern Connecticut State at 10:30 a.m. and Puget Sound at 3:00 p.m. on George "Sparky" Anderson Field.