WALLA WALLA, Wash. – The University of Redlands baseball team (18-17) beat Whitman College on the road in the first game of their doubleheader, 5-4. In game two they lost 12-4 after conceding a 9-0 lead to the Blues.
Game 1 (Redlands 5 – Whitman 4)
Washington native Will Cell started the scoring in the second inning when he doubled to center field and brought home fellow Washingtonian Kaiya Saito and Jake Burgess for an early 2-0 lead.
Whitman would tie the game in the fourth and then take a 4-2 lead against starter Tyler Reiter in the fifth. In the next half inning, however, Gabriel Ceja singled to right field and scored Tyler Preece to cut the deficit to one, 4-3.
After Reiter finished his start off with a scoreless sixth inning, Jakob Russell came on in relief and shut down the Blues in the seventh before the offense was able to tie and take the lead in the eighth.
In that eighth inning, the Bulldogs got a one out single from Ceja before Burgess tied the game at four with a triple. Ian Umscheid then had the game-winning hit with a pinch hit single that brought home Burgess for a 5-4 lead.
The Bulldogs would fail to add any additional runs in the ninth as Patrick Perez came on for Russell to close the game out. In the inning the Blues had the first two on after a single and hit-by-pitch.
Whitman moved the tying and winning runners into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt. After an intentional walk to load the bases and set up the double play possibility, Perez got a pop up and fly out to secure the save and the win.
The top five in the lineup went 2-for-22, but the rest of the lineup went 7-for-16 and drove in all five runs. Ceja and Burgess each went 2-for-4 while Preece reached twice via a hit and walk.
On the mound Reiter went six innings with 10 hits allowed and three earned runs. Russell threw two innings with no walks, two hits, and two strikeouts.
Game 2 (Redlands 4 – Whitman 12)
The Bulldogs trailed 9-0 until Jared Anderson singled to third and scored Lucas Romero.
Then trailing 12-1 in the seventh, Redlands avoided the game ending early due to run-rule as Luke Hanson hit a two-run single to short and Umscheid flied out to right field for a sacrifice fly to make it an eight-run game, 12-4.
Over the final two innings the two pitching staffs kept each other off the scoreboard as the two teams split the doubleheader.
After some struggles from the pitching, Ryan Rhoades, and Marco Naranjo each threw one scoreless inning with no hits allowed and one strikeout.
The Bulldogs and Blues play games three and four of the series in another doubleheader tomorrow starting at noon.