PASADENA, Calif. – It took a few hours and two extra innings, but Caltech Baseball notched a victory in its first game of the 2024 regular season, defeating the California Miramar University Fighting Falcons in the first game of Saturday's opening day doubleheader.

Sophomore Brendan Flaherty (Narragansett, RI Lake Forest Academy) started the 11 a.m. game and tossed six scoreless innings in a seven-inning quality start, allowing just one run on three hits while earning a career-high 10 strikeouts.

The Beavers connected for hits but were left stranded on base until finally breaking through in the eighth inning, as senior Gautam Chawla (Princeton, N.J. Princeton) sparked a rally with a leadoff ground rule double. Junior Jack Fishel (Baltimore, Md. Boys' Latin School of Maryland) followed with a perfectly-placed bunt single, sending Chawla all the way to third base. Fellow junior Thorsen Kristufek (McKinney, Texas McKinney) was then hit by a pitch to load the bases for sophomore Mark Hu (San Jose, Calif. / The Harker School), whose RBI single through the left side scored Chawla to tie the game at 1-1.

Junior Garrett Knuf (Laguna Niguel, Calif. / Dana Hills) came within 90 feet of ending the game in the bottom of the ninth, but would end up scoring the winning run in the 11th after drawing a walk followed by back-to-back singles by junior Edward Speer (Austin, Texas / Leander) and Chawla. Finally, with the bases loaded and two out, Kristufek refused to let a third strike go by him, fouling off pitches and battling to a full count and ultimately drawing a game-winning RBI walk to bring Knuf home.

Junior Cameron McNamee (Great Falls, Mont. / Great Falls) started at first base and relieved Flaherty on the mound, pitching into the top of the 11th inning, allowing just two hits and striking out four batters. Sophomore Jacob Alderete (Murietta, Calif. / Murietta Mesa) stepped in with two out in the 11th and delivered a clutch, bases-loaded strikeout to get the Beavers' defense off the field.

The visitors ended up splitting the day with a win in the second game of the day, which was called in the eighth inning due to darkness. It was nonetheless a positive showing by the Caltech squad, with Knuf, McNamee, sophomore Austin Wang (Palto Alto, Calif. The Harker School) and first-year Kailen Hargenrader (Bethesda, Md. / The Maret School) all scoring runs, with Wang recording two hits and two RBI and McNamee connecting for three hits and one RBI.

Head Coach Kevin Whitehead and the Beavers will be back in action at home on Friday, February 16 in a 2 p.m. game against Providence Christian College. Follow along live at https://gocaltech.com/coverage.