WHITTIER, Calif. – The Carleton College baseball team erased deficits three different times before suffering its second straight walk-off defeat as the Knights fell 14-13 at Whittier College on Tuesday.
The Knights (3-5) have lost their last four games, by a combined total of six runs. This was the third time in the four-game stretch that Carleton out-hit its opponent—this time by a 16-11 margin.
Paul Hinton (Sr./Omaha, Neb./Millard West) went a career-best 5-for-6 with two doubles and a career high-tying four RBI. Hinton was among five Knights with multi-hit games at the plate, and his five hits were the most by a Knight since Josh Small '20 had a 5-hit game against Oberlin on March 25, 2019.
Along with Hinton's big day at the dish,
Sam Zacks (Fy./Glencoe, Ill./New Trier) hit leadoff and went 3-for-5 with four runs scored, while
Jacob Small (Sr./Chappaqua, N.Y./Horace Greeley) was 2-for-5 with three runs scored and three RBI.
Sam Schur (Sr./Calabasas, Calif./Viewpoint) and
Luke Mager (Jr./Berkeley, Calif./Berkeley) also had two hits apiece.
Hinton doubled home Zacks in the top of the first inning, only to see the Poets (2-16) knot the score in the bottom of the frame. Whitter pushed five runs across in the third inning, but the Knights answered with a five-run fifth inning keyed by RBI doubles from
Jacob Small and Mager
.
After Hinton doubled pushed Carleton back in front, 8-6, with a two-run double in the top of the sixth inning, the hosts tallied four runs—three of them unearned—in the bottom of the stanza.
The seventh inning saw more offense. Carleton score four times, including a two-run double for
Jacob Small, while the Poets responded with three runs of their own to re-gain the lead.
Whittier carried a 13-12 lead into the top of the ninth, but Carleton found a way to knot the score again. In the bottom of the inning, the first Whittier batter was hit by a pitch, stole second, advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt, and scored on a throwing error.
The teams used a combined nine pitchers in the game, and only one of them did not surrender a run.
Up Next for the Knights
Carleton visits University of La Verne for a 3:00 p.m. PT/5:00 p.m. CT contest.