REDLANDS, Calif. – The University of Redlands Baseball team (15-8, 4-3 SCIAC) played their first Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) game in three weeks as they dropped their series opener to No. 12 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS), 20-6, Friday afternoon at The Yard.

Redlands found themselves behind the eight-ball after three and a half innings, trailing 5-1 with the lone RBI coming from Tyler Preece (Bellevue, WA) in the third.

The offense, though, got things moving in the bottom of the fourth with Jake Burgess (Riverside, CA) at second base following a walk and a stolen base. Gabriel Ceja (Long Beach, CA) then singled to center to cut into the deficit. Following a single by Kaiya Saito (Bellevue, WA), the tying run came to the plate.

The ensuing batter popped up to put two outs on the board, but Luke De Vries (Irvine, CA) kept the inning going as he worked the count full before getting hit by the next pitch. CMS then made a pitching change with Rylan Morris (Fullerton, CA) up next.

Morris came up big against a sidearm right-handed pitcher tripling down the first base line clearing the bases, which tied the game at five after four innings.

The big comeback would not be enough as the Stags scored 15 of the next 16 runs with Ceja's second RBI-single being the only run-scoring play for the Bulldogs.

Redlands' six-seven-eight hitters, Burgess, Ceja, and Saito, combined to record four of the Bulldogs' eight hits, drew two of their six walks, and drove in two of their six RBI's.

The Bulldogs have dropped the first game of a series three times this season but they have gone on to sweep the doubleheader the next day all three times. That doubleheader will begin tomorrow as the Stags and Bulldogs begin at 11:00 a.m. hosted at the University of La Verne.