REDLANDS, Calif. – The University of Redlands Baseball team (5-1) completed the series sweep of LeTourneau University on Saturday as Joe Godoy (Commerce, CA) and Nathan Buchan (Mercer Island, WA) threw complete games in a 6-3 win in Game 1 and a 10-2 victory in Game 2 at The Yard.
Game 1 (W, 6-3)
The Bulldogs fell behind in the first inning when the YellowJackets connected on a homerun. After that Bulldog started Godoy would go three scoreless frames before the Bulldog offense came alive in the fourth thanks to First-Year Mason Chetcuti (Redwood City, CA) who hit a two-out single into center scoring Jake Burgess (Riverside, CA) and Nathan Miller (San Jose, CA) who both reached on a pair of walks.
The inning that won it for Redlands was the fifth when Miller brought home Tyler Preece (Bellevue, WA) who had reached base on a throwing error to start the half inning.
That same inning Chetcuti came up clutch again with his third and fourth RBI's of the day as Miller and Gabriel Ceja (Long Beach, CA) would come in moving the score to 5-1.
Luke De Vries (Irvine, CA) tacked on a sixth run in the seventh as Sean McCance (Irvine, CA), who walked and stole second to begin the inning, was able to score from third after he was bunted over by Burgess.
Godoy was able to finish off the complete game as he worked around two runs to help the Bulldogs ensure they would at least win the series.
Chetcuti finished 2-for-4 with four RBI's. Ceja walked twice and scored while Miller went 1-for-2 with three walks, an RBI and two runs scored.
Godoy only needed 104 pitches for his complete game as the Bulldog starters have pitched 17 of the innings through the first two games.
Game 2 (W, 10-2)
After another early two runs for the YellowJackets to begin the second game of the doubleheader, the Bulldog offense got their first run in the third capitalizing on a LeTourneau error.
The Redlands' offense was not able to get starter Buchan more runs until the sixth when they pushed seven across the plate. The first run came after Kaiya Saito's (Bellevue, WA) sacrifice bunt turned into a throwing error at third that tied the game at two.
De Vries would then drive in the game-winning run on a single up the middle. After another error allowed another run to score, Ceja hit a sacrifice fly into right. The final two runs of the sixth came on a single by Caesar Correa (Redlands, CA) and another throwing error as UR went from down 2-1 to leading 8-2.
Ceja and Saito each picked up RBI's in the seventh and eighth innings as the Bulldogs nearly run-ruled the YellowJackets after only scoring one run in five innings.
Buchan collected his second win on the season throwing a complete game, giving up two runs (one earned) on four hits. He also struck out five. Preece finished 3-for-4 at the plate scoring three times and drawing a walk, De Vries was 3-for-6 with a run scored and an RBI, Correa was 2-for-3 in his first start adding a run, an RBI and walking twice.
The Bulldogs will start Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) play next Friday, February 23 on the road at California Lutheran University (CLU) at 2:00pm before hosting the Kingsmen on Saturday, February 24 at The Yard for a doubleheader with first pitches slated for 11:00am and 2:00pm.
