PASADENA, Calif. – Caltech Baseball welcomed in the Dickinson College Red Devils over the weekend in a three-game set, with a Friday afternoon tilt and a Saturday doubleheader.
Game one took place Friday afternoon with Beavers pitcher Brendan Flaherty (Narragansett, RI / Lake Forest Academy) taking the mound. It was a cold, rainy and windy game which made offense hard to come by for both teams. Dickinson got things kicked off in the first inning quickly. Kaden Sigmon reached on a fielder's choice as the game's second batter and then stole second. Flaherty got Red Devil's Ryan Thompson to ground out but then second baseman Matt Torres ripped an RBI single to make it a 1-0 ballgame.
In the third inning, the Red Devils added two more runs, this time off the bat of Sigmon who knocked in Josh Markley from second base. Sigmon would be batted in later in the inning by Torres, his second RBI of the game, to make it 3-0 after three.
Dickinson would add one more run in the ninth inning, but it was a slow offensive day for the Beavers. Caltech only managed two hits in the game, one from William Minatel (Brecksville, Ohio / Brecksville-Broadview Heights) in the third inning, the other coming from Mark Hu (San Jose, Calif. / The Harker School) who singled in the fourth. Kailen Hargenrader (Bethesda, Md. / The Maret School) drew a walk in the home half of the eighth, but that was all for the Beavers as they dropped game one 4-0.
The Beavers turned to Kenji Farrell (Novi, Mich. / Detroit Country Day School) to start game two of the series on Saturday morning and Farrell was met with the Dickinson bats who showed up. Farrell retired the side 1-2-3 in the first inning but ran into some trouble in the second. After sitting down two of the first three hitters in the inning, Farrell walked shortstop Luke Gartland setting up first baseman Christian Kim with an opportunity to break the 0-0 contest. Kim singled, scoring Kyle Bailey from second and giving Dickinson a 1-0 lead after two.
In the third inning, Dickinson put up a five spot in the score column with five hits in the inning. Caltech managed to get a run back in the bottom half of the inning with third baseman Mark Hu singling to score Hargenrader from third base. After three, the Beavers trailed 6-1, but Dickinson was not done scoring yet. Four more runs put the Beavers in a 9-1 hole heading into the bottom half of the fifth.
Caltech wouldn't go down without a fight as the fifth inning is where the Beavers put up five runs. Quinn Hartman (Huntington Beach, Calif. / Marina) started the rally off with a single. Jack Fishel (Baltimore, Md. / Boys' Latin School of Maryland) doubled, scoring Hartman from first and giving Hu an RBI opportunity. The next two batters Hu and Aidan Hamner (Bettendorf, IA / Bettendorf) reached on two separate errors made by Red Devils third baseman Ethan Sodl. The errors caused two more runs to score and gave Minatel a chance to add to the inning. Minatel singled to right field, scoring Hamner from second and keeping the inning alive. Brendan Flaherty would be the next hitter and he reached on an error as well that scored another run. After all the chaos, the Beavers left the fifth inning trailing 10-6.
Dickinson managed to add a couple more runs, winning this game 12-6. Hu led the Beavers offensively, going 2-5 with an RBI and a run scored. He also came into the game as a reliever and kept the Beavers within striking distance, going 4.1 innings and allowing seven hits and three runs.
The final game of the series began early Saturday afternoon with Joseph Pieper (Palatine, Ill. / Palatine) on the mound for the Beavers. Pieper was good in this outing, but a few runs early from Dickinson proved to be the difference-maker in this one. Matt Torres once again collected an RBI single in the first inning to quickly put the Red Devils ahead 1-0, but Caltech would respond. Back-to-back doubles from Jack Fishel and Mark Hu in the bottom half of the inning tied the game at 1-1 heading into the second.
Johnny Bruno led the top of the second inning off with a walk and after two quick outs, Pieper found himself one out away from getting out of a jam early. The nine hitter, Will Ferris, worked a long at-bat that ended in a walk and after stealing second, it was up to Red Devils outfielder Josh Markley to cash in on the scoring chance. Markley did just that, turning on a fastball and driving in both Bruno and Ferris; giving Dickinson a 3-1 lead.
In the bottom of the third, Caltech strung together a couple of hits for a scoring threat. Hartman and Fishel each singled to set up Jack Bernhardt with a runner on third and two outs. Bernhardt would drive in Fishel from third, making the game 3-2, but that is how it would end. Due to time constraints and the first game taking over three hours to complete, the Dickinson squad needed to shorten the third game to make sure they could leave on time. A seven-inning game was agreed upon and after a little bit of confusion, the game did end after seven innings with the final score being 3-2.
Pieper was excellent once he settled in, at one point in the game retiring 16 straight batters. His final line: 7 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 Ks. On the offensive side, Jack Fishel was his usual self, going 3-3 with a double, two singles and scoring two runs in the contest.
Head Coach Kevin Whitehead and his Beavers will take on the Oberlin College Yeomen next Saturday, March 22 for a doubleheader. The first pitch is scheduled for 11 a.m.
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