REDLANDS, Calif. (Feb. 15, 2020) – The Caltech baseball team found its form midway through the first game of Saturday's doubleheader against SCIAC foe California Lutheran University and parlayed its success into giving the Kingsmen a challenge the in the second game of the doubleheader. The Beavers ultimately recovered from a tough Friday defeat in Thousand Oaks to a team that received votes for the Division III Top-25 poll.

Saturday Game 1: Cal Lutheran 13, Caltech 11

The Beavers took part in a slugfest with the Kingsmen in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader in Pasadena. Caltech opened with a four-run outburst in the first inning thanks to five singles and a Cal Lutheran error. Senior shortstop Cortland Perry (New York, N.Y. / The Dalton School) kicked off the Caltech response with one of his four hits of the game. Caltech struck it big again in the sixth inning after Cal Lutheran took a 13-4 lead. This time, the Beavers flashed their power stroke. Junior first baseman Mitchell Watson (Windsor, Colo. / Windsor) hit the team's first home run of the season, a solo shot into left field to begin the barrage, and freshman left fielder Jack Warren (Foster City, Calif. / San Mateo) followed up with a double down the right-field line that narrowly kept fair. Caltech went on to accrue four more singles and a walk that inning to cut a nine-run deficit to just four.

From there, Caltech kept up the momentum on the mound. Freshman right-hander Danny Collinson (West Chester, Pa. / Henderson) pitched the team's first scoreless inning of the game and held the Kingsmen off the scoreboard in every inning thereafter. Collinson's mound work also helped set the table for Caltech to halve Cal Lutheran's deficit to just two by game's end, resulting in the host Beavers laying seven unanswered runs on the visitors. While eight different players plated runs, Warren stood out as the only Beaver to reach two RBI's. Meanwhile, Watson scored three runs, touching home every time he reached base.

Saturday Game 2: Cal Lutheran 5, Caltech 2

Saturday's second game took on a slightly different tone than the first with both teams combining for just seven runs. Freshman righty Steven Yee (Leawood, Kan. / Blue Valley) anchored the Beavers on the mound, pitching six innings in his starting debut. Perry, the Beavers' stopper on the mound, relieved Yee in the seventh inning and blanked the Kingsmen over the final three innings while holding them to just two hits and accruing three strikeouts. The Caltech defense shined behind its arms, committing just one error over nine innings, a significant improvement over some of the team's early games this year.

The Caltech offense scored runs in the second and fifth innings. First, sophomore Dawson Beutler (Omaha, Neb. / Millard West) plated Watson to give the junior his fourth scored run of the series, then, Perry added to his stellar day with a home run shot to left field to put the Beavers within three runs of the Kingsmen. 

Head Coach Kevin Whitehead and the Beavers will have another chance to grab a SCIAC win next weekend when they travel to Pomona-Pitzer Colleges on Friday before hosting the Sagehens for a Saturday doubleheader, beginning at 11 a.m.

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