PASADENA, Calif. – The University of Redlands Baseball team (16-10, 5-5 SCIAC) lost at Caltech, 7-1, Friday afternoon as they were held to only five hits.

The Bulldogs had a runner in scoring position in just three innings on the afternoon. The first opportunity came in the first when Tyler Preece (Bellevue, WA) reached on a throwing error and then advanced to second on a wild pitch. He would be stranded there on a strikeout.

Preece would again be at secondbase after walking and stealing second in the fourth. A strikeout and foul out ended the scoring opportunity with the Bulldogs trailing 2-0.

For a third time Preece was at second as he singled through the right side with one out and made it to second on a ground out. The frame, though, would end on a flyout to right with the score in the Beavers favor, 5-0.

The best chance to break up the shutout came in the seventh when Gabriel Ceja (Long Beach, CA) doubled to right center to lead off the inning. After a flyout and sacrifice bunt he was at third with Kaiya Saito (Bellevue, WA) at the plate. Saito would come through with the two-out RBI. After a walk drawn by Luke De Vries (Irvine, CA), Redlands had the chance to cut the deficit from four to two, but a line out to center ended the threat.

A pair of one-two-three innings in the eighth and ninth for the Beaver starter sealed the Bulldogs fate as they will need to sweep the home doubleheader tomorrow, Saturday, March 29 at The Yard to win the series. First pitch is set for 11:00 a.m.

Saito had three of the five hits for the U of R and did not leave any runners on base. His three hits are a career high.

Joe Godoy (Commerce, CA) had one of his strongest starts of the season, allowing only two earned runs across 3.2 innings. Gavin Duenez (Redlands, CA) gave Redlands a chance to come back with four innings on no earned runs allowed.