TUCSON, Ariz. – The University of Redlands Baseball team (11-11) broke out the bats in their first two games at the Tucson Cactus Classic Thursday as they run-ruled Carleton College 16-6 in eight innings before blanking Wesleyan University 15-0 in seven innings.
Game 1: Carleton College (W, 16-6 | 8-Innings)
Things got off to a rough start in the first inning as the Bulldogs found themselves down 5-0. They would respond an inning later in the second with five runs of their own as Jake Burgess (Riverside, CA) singled home Gabriel Ceja for the first run. Luke De Vries (Irvine, CA) then doubled down the left field line as Mason Chetcuti (Redwood City, CA) and Luke Hanson (Escondido, CA) came in. De Vries and Burgess would then score on an error at short as it was five all after two.
Redlands sealed the win with a four spot in the fourth as Tyler Preece, Ceja, and Chetcuti all had RBI singles. Arizona native Jared Anderson (Gilbert, AZ) scored along with Will Cell (Seattle, WA), Preece, and Ceja.
Preece made it 10-5 in the fifth when he doubled home Anderson.
In the sixth De Vries picked up another RBI, his third, with a single to center. Later in the sixth Anderson hit a sacrifice fly to center as it was 12-5 after six innings.
Carleton got their final run in the seventh inning on a double before Burgess, De Vries, and Anderson picked up RBI's to pull the Bulldogs within a run of a run-rule victory.
The win would have to wait an inning until the eighth when Ceja hit a sacrifice fly to right that allowed Nathan Miller (San Jose, CA) to score the game-ending run.
Redlands finished with 17 hits and drew seven walks. De Vries finished with three hits and four RBI's, Anderson had two hits, a walk, and two RBI's, Preece was 3-for-4, Ceja finished 3-for-5 with two RBI's and three runs scored, Chetcuti had a pair of hits, and Burgess rounded out the batters with multiple hits as he finished with three along with two RBI's and three runs scored. Kethan Efron (Henderson, NV) earned the start and went 3.0 Innings giving up only one earned run, while scattering five hits and striking out three. The win went to first-year Miles Lu (San Jose, CA) who threw the final 5.0 Innings giving up one run on three hits along with six strikeouts.
Game 2: Wesleyan University (W, 15-0 | 7-Innings)
Tyler Reiter (San Diego, CA) earned the start in Game 2 and got the Bulldogs off on the right foot with a quick one-two-three first, which included a pair of strikeouts.
Miller then had the eventual game-winning RBI in the bottom of the first when he singled to second base scoring De Vries. Ian Umscheid (Beaumont, CA) plated the second run with a sacrifice fly to left as Ceja came around.
In the third Redlands pushed five across as Cade McClelland (Mission Viejo, CA) had the first two RBI's followed by a bunt single from Burgess, which included a throwing error by the pitcher as McClelland and Umscheid scored. The final run of the inning was a sacrifice fly to center by Kaiya Saito (Bellevue, WA) that brought in Burgess who made his way to third following that throwing error.
Five more runs would score for the Bulldogs in the fifth as they recorded their third five-run inning on the day. Saito got his second RBI after singling to center. The big hit of the inning came from Miller who homered to left for his first career grand slam.
The final three runs came in the sixth thanks to hits from Caesar Correa (Redlands, CA) and Anderson who singled to left and right respectively.
Reiter finished off the complete game shutout in the seventh with two strikeouts and a ground out. He finished with seven innings on 92 pitches with six hits allowed, one walk, and eight strikeouts.
Anderson, Ceja, Miller, Burgess, and Saito had multiple hits as the offense added another 16 hits to their tally.
Redlands finishes their trip to Arizona with a pair of games against Bates College at 9:30 a.m. and Carleton for a second time at 1:00 p.m. Friday, March 22.
