REDLANDS, Calif. – Luke De Vries came through with the walk-off hit in the ninth inning as the University of Redlands baseball team (15-7) ended non-conference play with a 7-6 win at The Yard against Middlebury University.
Following a run by the Panthers in the top of the second, Ian Umscheid took the final 90 feet on a wild pitch to tie the game at one. Later in the inning Gabriel Ceja singled home Jake Burgess and Rylan Morris hit a sacrifice fly to left for a 3-1 lead.
Middlebury, though, came back with a pair of runs in the fourth as the game was tied once again. Much like the second inning, Redlands responded in the very next half inning as the first four Bulldogs reached base.
CJ Brown doubled ahead of De Vries who tripled home Brown. Following a walk to Morris, Mark Kirkland made it 5-3 with an RBI-single through the left side. Umscheid made it a three-run inning with a sacrifice fly for a 6-3 lead after four innings.
The Panthers tied the game at six in the sixth thanks to a fielder's choice RBI, an RBI-single up the middle, and a wild pitch that equalized the game at six.
Aziz Bishop came in to begin the ninth and finished off the inning with a pair of strike outs. In the bottom half Ceja singled with one out and pinch runner Luke Hanson advanced to second on a wild pitch. Will Cell then walked before a strikeout brought De Vries to the plate with two outs.
De Vries would line a ball past the diving shortstop and Hanson came around to score the game-winning run for a 7-6 win.
The top four in the lineup of De Vries, Morris, Kirkland, and Umscheid combined for nine hits, two runs scored, five RBI, three walks, and a stolen base.
On the mound Gavin Duenez threw a scoreless fifth with two strikeouts. Kethan Efron had 1.2 scoreless innings on only 22 pitches. John Hernandez got through the Panthers hitters on 16 pitches in the eighth before Bishop set up the walk off as he won his first collegiate game.
The Bulldogs resume Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) play this Friday as they host No. 12 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps at 3 p.m. at The Yard.