PASADENA, Calif. – One day after scoring in eight different innings, the Carleton College baseball team had a more trouble pushing runs across the plate and dropped both ends of a doubleheader at California Institute of Technology. The Beavers claimed game one, 2-0, and held on to take the nightcap, 6-5.
"Disappointing effort today, but with some bright spots moving forward," said Carleton head coach
Aaron Rushing. "We gave away too many free passes and missed a couple opportunities to execute offensively. That said, we're still getting better and got some outstanding efforts on the mound and at the plate, especially from our young guys. The beauty of the spring trip is we're back on the field again tomorrow with another opportunity to compete and get better."
Game 1 Recap
The Knights (3-3 overall) out-hit Caltech (6-13 overall) by a 9-6 margin and had baserunners aboard in eight different frames. Carleton left seven runners aboard in scoring position.
Jacob Small (Sr./Chappaqua, N.Y./Horace Greeley) went 3-for-4 with a walk.
Caltech's Dawson Beautler pitched around the traffic for a complete game shutout. He struck out seven over his 9.0 innings of mound work.
Meanwhie, the Carleton pitching staff walked a tightrope all game. In addition to the six hits, the Knights yielded eight walks and hit three batters. The Knights managed to limit the damage by stranding 14 baserunners.
Caltech took advantage of an error to score a run in the fifth inning and back-to-back two-out walks forced home the other run in the bottom of the seventh.
Game 2 Recap
As they did in the opener, the Knights once again had the edge in hits by a 9-6 tally and put at least one baserunner aboard in all but one inning. This time, a pair of costly errors opened the door for Caltech to score five unearned runs in the third inning, and Carleton's late rally fell just short.
The Knights plated an unearned run of their own in the top of the second, before the Beavers took advantage of the extra outs for build a 5-1 lead through three innings. The hosts added another two-out tally in the fourth inning.
David Lee (Fy./San Juan Capistrano, Calif./San Juan Hills) kept Carleton in the game by tossing 4.1 scoreless innings of 1-hit relief.
The Knights got a run back in the seventh when
Aaron Berkowitz (Jr./Kansas City, Mo./Pembroke Hill School) doubled,
Sam Zacks (Fy./Glencoe, Ill./New Trier) singled, and Small hit a sacrifice fly.
The Knights plated two more runs in the eighth inning.
Paul Hinton (Sr./Omaha, Neb./Millard West) started the rally with a double followed by
Brayden Stark's (So./Los Angeles, Calif./The Buckley School) single that put runners on the corners.
Cayten Gardner (Sr./Claremont, Calif./Claremont) had a RBI groundout, and
Steve Antrim (So./Lake Bluff, Ill./Lake Forest) followed with a RBI single to left field.
Things got interesting in the top of the ninth. Zacks started the frame by collecting his fourth hit of the contest. Small worked a walk, and both runners were bunted into scoring position. Hinton's groundout scored Zacks and moved the tying run to third base.
Jacob Smith's (Sr./McKinleyville, Calif./McKinleyville) deep drive to centerfield was tracked down, allowing Caltech to escape with the victory.
Carleton starting pitcher
Ben Jeweler (Jr./Seattle, Wash./Garfield) was charged with only one earned run while striking out four over 3.2 innings.
Ryan Rusansky pitched 7.0 innings for the win, and Matthew Cox came on to record the last three outs and earn the save.
Up Next for the Knights
Carleton heads to Chapman University for a 1:00 p.m. PT/3:00 p.m. CT affair on Sunday, March 20.
