PASADENA, Calif. – Caltech baseball hosted Oberlin College over the weekend for a four-game set split between two doubleheaders on Saturday and Monday. The Beavers walked away from the series with a win in the first game.
Game one started with Beavers pitcher Brendan Flaherty (Narragansett, RI / Lake Forest Academy) striking out all three of his adversaries in the first inning. It wasn't just only the pitching that was red hot for the Beavers, but the bats too. The first inning saw a four-run rally with everyone on the lineup getting a chance to bat. Mark Hu (San Jose, Calif. / The Harker School), Jack Bernhardt (Littleton, Colo. / Columbine), Thorson Kristufek (McKinney, Texas / McKinney) and William Minatel (Brecksville, Ohio / Brecksville-Broadview Heights) were credited with the hits that batted in runs during this impeccable first inning.
The Beavers didn't let the feeling of being up early stop them from continuing their efforts, as the third inning featured Edward Speer (Austin, Texas / Leander) knocking down a ground ball for a sacrifice RBI to let Levi Alderete (Murrieta, Calif. / Murrieta Mesa) score. To show furthermore that he understood the assignment, Speer popped up another ball late in the fifth inning, once again allowing Alderete to score. Speer, Hu and Kristufek led the team in RBIs with each of them getting two in the first game.
Brendan Flaherty dominated this game right from the jump. Flaherty stayed on the field for more than eight innings and didn't allow a single run until the ninth inning. He did not issue a walk during his time on the mound, he posted a 2.16 ERA, he only allowed three hits before the ninth inning, and delivered in the clutch with 10 strikeouts in the match. Flaherty has his third win of the season and his record for most wins in school history is getting harder and harder to beat.
Saturday ended with a seven-inning game two, which saw Joseph Pieper (Palatine, Ill. / Palatine) take the mound for the Beavers. Pieper had three strikeouts on the day but it was two home runs early for Oberlin, which set the tone for the rest of the match. The Beavers refused to give up and had a rally in the sixth inning capped off by Sayuj Choudhari (Buffalo Grove, Ill. / Adlai E. Stevenson) hitting a sacrifice fly to right field. After Choudhari caught two fly balls in the outfield, the Beavers set the table for a possible comeback in the 7th inning, but it was short-lived.
After having the day off on Sunday, the Beavers resumed action on Monday morning for the second doubleheader against Oberlin which saw them drop both games.
Kenji Farrell (Novi, Mich. / Detroit Country Day School) got the ball for the third game of the weekend series which started off on a good note for the Beavers. After a 1-2-3 inning from Farrell,
Jack Fishel got the offensive action started with a walk. Bernhardt followed Fishel with a two-out double down the left field line, scoring Fishel from first and giving Caltech an early 1-0 lead.
The Yeomen would bounce back with three runs in the second, and they wouldn't look back. Caltech added two more runs in the seventh inning thanks to
Quinn Hartman (Huntington Beach, Calif. / Marina), who hit his first home run of his collegiate career and another run in the eighth off of a bases-loaded wild pitch which would score Hu from third.
The last game of the series was only a seven-inning game due to time constraints, and Coach Whitehead turned to first-year
Lucas Favretto (Pasadena, Calif. / St. Francis) to get the game going on the right foot. Favretto breezed through the first inning but was met with some adversity in the second when Oberlin scored three runs, all being unearned due to errors in the inning by Caltech.
Back-to-back extra-base hits from Flaherty and Hartman gave the Beavers their first run of the fourth game in the third inning.
Garrett Knuf (Laguna Niguel, Calif. / Dana Hills) would continue the scoring action in the bottom of the fourth, tripling to right center field and scoring Kristufek from first. In the fifth, Kristufek was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to drive in the third run of the day for Caltech, and in the seventh,
Varun Gabbita (Manalapan, Fla. / High Technology) singled, scoring Fishel from third. The four runs would not be enough for the Beavers as they dropped the last game 8-4.
Hartman led the team in hits throughout the series, going 5-17 with the homerun on Monday. Fishel, Hu, Alderete and Knuf all had four hits in the series, with Knuf batting an impressive 4-7 in his plate appearances.
Head Coach Kevin Whitehead and his Beavers will look towards next weekend for their next matchup which will come against Redlands. The Beavers will host the Bulldogs on North Field at 3 p.m. for the first game of the series before traveling to Redlands for Saturday's doubleheader.
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