REDLANDS, Calif. – The University of Redlands Baseball team (13-12, 5-8 SCIAC) took down Chapman University, 8-7, on Thursday afternoon at The Yard as they held off three late Panther rallies.
The offense started out on fire for the Bulldogs with Luke De Vries (Irvine, CA) and Jared Anderson (Gilbert, AZ) each singling to center to start off the bottom half of the first. Following a sacrifice bunt by Tyler Preece (Bellevue, WA), Sebastian Mejorado (Oceanside, CA) stepped in and singled through the right side plating De Vries. Nathan Miller (San Jose, CA) then beat out a potential double play as he allowed Anderson to score makng it 2-0.
Over the next four innings the offense was held at bay, while U of R starter Tyler Reiter (San Diego, CA) allowed only two hits as he maintained the 2-0 lead after five innings.
Chapman, however, would score three times on five hits in the sixth inning as they went in front for the first time, 3-2. Reiter would finish off the inning with a fly out that stranded two more potential runs.
After four scoreless innings from the Maroon and Grey Redlands would pick up Reiter with three runs in the bottom half of the sixth as Preece doubled home Anderson to tie the game at three before Jake Burgess (Riverside, CA) came up big with a two-out RBI-single that reclaimed the lead for UR 5-3.
The Panthers earned one of the runs back in the seventh before Preece got two more RBI's in the bottom half of the inning as De Vries and Will Cell (Seattle, WA) scored after reaching on a pair of lead off singles. Miller would then get another two-out RBI for the Bulldogs as he doubled home Preece for what felt like a comfortable 8-4 lead.
Though, much like in the sixth, Chapman scored three times on four hits in the eighth to draw within two. Reliever Patrick Perez (Ontario, CA) came on and was able to strand the tying and lead runs.
Redlands would not add any insurance runs in the eighth, but in the ninth Perez secured the Bulldog win with Kaiya Saito (Bellevue, WA) throwing out the tying runner attempting to steal second before finishing with a strikeout and a ground out.
The top five in the order, De Vries, Anderson, Preece, Mejorado, and Miller, combined to go 8-for-17 with seven runs scored and six RBI's. Burgess added two hits and two RBI's from his seventh spot.
Reiter finished with three runs on eight hits along with three strikeouts across six innings as he picked up his sixth win of the season. Perez threw the final 1.1 innings with no runs allowed and a strikeout on only 16 pitches as he earned his second save.
Redlands travels to Chapman tomorrow, Friday, March 29 for a doubleheader at Hart Park with game times slated for 2:00pm and 5:00pm.
