THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – The University of Redlands Baseball team (5-1, 1-0 SCIAC) started their Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) schedule with an 8-6 road win at RV California Lutheran University (CLU) Friday afternoon in a game where 12 of the 14 runs were scored in the first, eighth, and ninth innings.
The Bulldogs got off to a quick start as they scored three times in the first. Gabriel Ceja (Long Beach, CA) started the scoring with a two-run double that brought home Luke De Vries (Irvine, CA). After Jared Anderson (Gilbert, AZ) scored to make it 2-0 Cade McClelland (Mission Viejo, CA) singled on the infield allowing Ceja to come in.
CLU got a run back in the third on a sacrifice fly to left, but they were held scoreless for the next four innings. In that time Kaiya Saito (Bellevue, WA) singled scoring McClelland for a 4-1 lead in the sixth.
In the eighth Tyler Preece (Bellevue, WA) walked with the bases loaded and Will Cell (Seattle, WA) came in from third for a 5-1 lead that felt safe for the Bulldogs. The Kingsmen, however, got two runs back in the bottom half of the inning.
Jakob Russell (Fontana, CA) would then relieve starter Tyler Reiter (San Diego, CA) with two on and no one out. He would come on and walk the first batter loading the bases in a two-run game.
Russell would lock in with the tying run at second and the winning run at first as he got a fly out to right, a pop-up to first, and ending the inning with a ground out.
Redlands appeared to have won the game again in the ninth when they scored three times to take an 8-3 lead. Cell got the scoring started with an RBI-double that scored Jake Burgess (Riverside, CA) who beat out an infield single to third. Then Saito collected another RBI as he brought home Cell. The eighth and final run came courtesy of Preece.
The Kingsmen did not go away quietly as they had a runner at second with two outs in their final at-bats, but after they went RBI-single, RBI-double, RBI-single, it was a two-run game, 8-6. Russell though would settle down and would get the final out to preserve a hard fought win.
The Bulldogs finished with 17 hits and drew five walks. De Vries, Preece, Ceja, McClelland, Cell, and Saito all reached base with multi-hit games. Reiter collected his third win on the season and Russell added his second save.
Redlands and CLU will complete their three-game series tomorrow, Saturday, February 24 at The Yard with first pitch of game one set for 11:00 a.m.
