Bad Inning Spoils Day for Kingsmen

More news about: Cal Lutheran

REDLANDS, Calif. - With the exception on one inning during each of Cal Lutheran's games against the Redlands Bulldogs, the Kingsmen played well enough to deserve the win. However, it was during that one set of Bulldog at-bats that Redlands caused enough damage to earn the sweep in Sunday's baseball doubleheader.

Box Score (Game 1): UR 8, CLU 3 - F
Box Score (Game 2): UR 6, CLU 4 - F

Redlands 8, Cal Lutheran 3 - F
Earning one of the three Cal Lutheran's RBI in game one, a single to left field by CLU Nick Boggan drove in teammate Iggy Wagner to help CLU jump out to an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning.

Wagner led off the game with a single to second base, eventually advancing to third base on a balk and a passed ball before scoring on Boggan's single.

K.C. Judge helped advance Boggan to scoring position on his single down the right field line before Brandyn Delgado doubled the Kingsmen's lead to 2-0 when he drove in Boggan on his ground out to the shortstop.

Redlands would eventually tie the game the very next inning thanks to their two runs scored on three hits, but it was the events of the sixth inning that end up being the difference in the game.

In the Redlands half of the sixth, the first six batters would reach base safely, helping the Bulldogs build a five-run inning to pull away from the visiting Kingsmen.

Back-to-back singles in the top of the seventh would help the Kingsmen whittle away at the Bulldog lead; once Trevor Koons drove in Tom Hocutt on his ground ball to the Bulldog shortstop, CLU was able to decrease UR's lead to 7-3.

But that would be as close as Cal Lutheran would get to erasing their deficit on the scoreboard as UR added another run in the bottom of the seventh to win the first game of the day by a final score of 8-3.

Redlands 6, Cal Lutheran 4 - F
It was Redlands that jumped out to an early 4-0 lead thanks to three consecutive singles, a sacrifice fly, and a home run that put the Kingsmen on their heels early in the second game of the day.

Undaunted, Cal Lutheran chopped that lead in half  in the top of the third inning thanks to a single up the middle by Koons and a two-run home run by Boggan, bringing the once sizable lead down to a more manageable 4-2 margin.

Boggan now leads the team with five home runs, nearly one-half of the team's total of 11 hit so far in 2011.

Scoring one run in both the bottom of the third and seventh innings, Redlands was able to re-establish their four run lead heading into the final innings of the day.

Down to their final set of outs, Cal Lutheran quickly chopped the lead back to two runs when John Leal hit his first long ball of the season, driving in Darren Iacono who began the inning with a single to right field.

The home run punctuated a 2-for-4, two RBI effort at the plate by Leal as both he and Boggan finished with identical batting numbers to lead the way for the Kingsmen in game two.

Unfortunately for Cal Lutheran, that home run would end up being their last runs scored in Redlands as the Bulldogs held on to complete the sweep and defeat the Kingsmen by a final score of 6-4.

The series shifts to Thousand Oaks Monday afternoon when Redlands travels to George "Sparky" Anderson Field at Ullman Stadium for the final game of the weekend series. First pitch is scheduled for 2:30 p.m.