PASADENA, Calif. – Caltech Baseball welcomed the Occidental College Tigers to North Field on Friday afternoon for the first game of a three-game set which saw the Beavers come away with a win 4-2.
 
It was a day headlined by excellent performances but none other than Beavers starting pitcher Brendan Flaherty (Narragansett, RI / Lake Forest Academy). Flaherty completed the full game on the mound for Caltech and was instrumental in their team's success. His final line: 9.0 innings pitched, five hits allowed, one earned run out of two runs allowed, 11 strikeouts, and five walks. Flaherty threw an astounding 162 pitches as he was not going to be taken out of the game until it was over.
 
Rewinding a bit, the game got kickstarted early, and it was the Tigers who started things off fast. After the leadoff man was retired for Occidental, catcher Thomas Munch got the party started with a solo home run, his first of the season, which put the Tigers up 1-0 after the top of the first inning.
 
Caltech's first time at the plate saw some traffic on the bases. Jack Fishel (Baltimore, Md. / Boys' Latin School of Maryland) led the game off with a walk and two batters later Thorsen Kristufek (McKinney, Texas / McKinney) joined him with a walk himself. Two runners on for the Beavers early, but a Kailen Hargenrader (Bethesda, Md. / The Maret School) strikeout ended the inning.
 
The next couple of innings was what is known as a "pitcher's duel". Brendan Flaherty and Tigers pitcher Christian Martinez took turns retiring the side with only four runners even reaching base over the next four innings. Martinez and Flaherty struck out 19 combined batters in the game and it took the Beavers until the sixth inning to get their first hit of the ballgame.
 
The bottom of the sixth inning was the third time Martinez made his way through the lineup and this time, the Beavers were ready for him. First baseman Quinn Hartman (Huntington Beach, Calif. / Marina) led the inning off with a single up the middle. Fishel would follow him with a single as well and now Caltech had their first runner in scoring position since the first inning. Designated hitter Jack Bernhardt (Littleton, Colo. / Columbine) was hit by a pitch to load the bases for third baseman Mark Hu (San Jose, Calif. / The Harker School) who came in clutch with a timely single to tie the game at 1-1.
 
With the bases loaded and only one out, Hargenrader came up to the plate and delivered with Caltech's fourth hit of the inning scoring another run and giving the Beavers a 2-1 lead. Shortstop William Minatel (Brecksville, Ohio / Brecksville-Broadview Heights) would be hit by a pitch, and with that, Caltech left the sixth inning with a 3-1 lead over the Tigers.
 
Fast forwarding to the bottom of the eighth inning, Caltech still led 3-1 but was looking for some insurance. After the right fielder Kristufek reached on an error, it was the left fielder Hargenrader who drove him in as he doubled into the left-center field gap putting the Beavers up 4-1.
 
Onto the ninth inning and starting pitcher Brendan Flaherty came back out onto the mound to finish the job. It wasn't as easy as the previous seven innings were for Flaherty as the first two batters reached base via an error and a hit-by-pitch to bring the tying run up to the plate in Griffen Rogers. Rogers struck out and after the two-hitter Munch flew out to Fishel in center, Flaherty was one out away from a complete game. Ben Rutkin, the Tigers designated hitter, decided he wanted to keep this game going as he singled up the middle scoring the runner from second base and making it 4-2.
 
That is ultimately how the game would end. Flaherty struck out pinch hitter Miles Capobianco, looking, for his 11th strikeout of the game and the final out. It took all 162 pitches for Brendan Flaherty to get the win, he is now 2-0 on the season with a 1.93 ERA allowed. After the game, Assistant Coach Frank Craska had some high praise for Flaherty and the team.
 
"Brendan is an absolute bulldog competitor on the mound," Craska said. "There was never a doubt in my mind that he was gonna take us (to the end of the game), it was just a matter of how it was going to look… once we got through the seventh and eighth innings, we knew this was Brendan's game and we wanted him to take it home."
 
"He's a guy you've got to fight to take him out," Craska continued. "It speaks volumes about the kind of competitor he is to take it home and get a huge Friday win for us."
 
Caltech Baseball will finish out this three-game series against Occidental on Saturday where the Beavers will take the short drive to Eagle Rock, Los Angeles to face the Tigers for games two and three of the series. Game one of the doubleheader will start at 11 a.m. with game two projecting for a start time of 2 p.m.
 
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