PASADENA, Calif. — The Caltech baseball team earned a dominant 10-2 victory on Friday afternoon as they hosted the Whittier College Poets in the first of a three-game series.
Caltech produced a number of highlights, but none trumped the history made in the sixth inning when senior Jack Warren broke the program record for hits recorded in a single season. With sophomore left fielder Jack Fishel on second base, Warren launched a record-breaking ball deep to center field for an RBI ground-rule double, scoring Fishel.
Warren, who notched four hits in his five at-bats in Friday's contest, is now up to 49 hits on the season with eight games still remaining. The record was previously 46, held jointly by Mark Burleson in 2017, and current teammate and senior center fielder Will Dembski, who reached the number one season ago.
The Beavers gained control of the contest early and ruled both sides of the game, with multiple players putting in exceptional performances behind the mound and at the plate.
Sophomore Cameron McNamee earned the win on Friday as he put in his best pitching performance of the season. The Montana native put in five scoreless innings and allowed just four hits and two walks.
Junior Leo Jenkins finished the final four innings of the game, holding the Poets to their only two runs on five hits.
Caltech also put on an elite showing on offense; the Beavers scored runs in four of the game's nine innings.
The scoring started in the opening frame as Warren connected on a ground-rule double to center field to score Fishel from second base. This exact play would occur later in the game as Warren attained the single-season hits record.
Jenkins, who served as designated hitter in Friday's matchup, would advance Warren home in the first inning with a well-placed sacrifice fly, giving Caltech the 2-0 advantage.
The team would again find their bats in the third inning, which began with a single to left center from sophomore catcher Edward Speer. A double from Warren advanced Speer to third, before he scored on a passed ball.
A massive single to left field from sophomore Thorsen Kristufek would score Warren and Dembski, who had reached on a walk. Kristufek would later score after Whittier produced a bases-loaded walk.
With six runs on the board, the Beavers were not done scoring as they entered the bottom of the sixth. The home team would make it a 7-1 game on Warren's record-breaking hit, before Warren scored following a fly-out from Jenkins and a wild pitch from Whittier.
The Beavers would score their final two runs of the game in the eighth inning off Jenkins' as he knocked a two-RBI single to drive home Warren from second and Dembsky all the way from first base.
"It's good to win," Head Coach Kevin Whitehead said. "Where we're at in the season, it's great seeing guys still mentally and physically just ready to go and getting better, like Cam stepping up and giving us five good innings. We only had Leo slated slated to pitch two innings but he wanted to go back out there and end it, embracing that role as a pitcher." He was pleased that the Beavers' runs came across several innings as it wasn't a flukey win with a seven-run inning for example.
Whittier's two runs tied for the second-lowest run total for a Caltech opponent this season. The Beavers' ten runs were the fifth most for the group this year.
The Poets will host the next two games tomorrow beginning at 11 a.m.
