POMONA, Calif. – The No. 9 Colorado Mesa baseball team split a doubleheader with the home standing Cal Poly Pomona Broncos on Saturday (Feb. 7) afternoon at Scolinos Field.
In game one of the day, four Maverick pitchers combined to shutout the Broncos in an 8-0 victory. As a quartet, they allowed six hits, walked two and struck out seven to help the team to their first win of the campaign.
Caleb Ruter made his return to the mound and pitched four and two-third innings and allowed five hits, walked one and struck out four in his first start in 357 days. He allowed just three batters to reach scoring position on 76 total pitches.
Aidan Biaggi earned the win and combined with
Sage Ferguson and
Alex Jennings to pitch the remaining four and a third innings and allowed just one hit and two total baserunners while striking out three.
Colorado Mesa had five batters with multiple hits and spotted the Maverick pitchers six runs in the first two innings of action.
Joey Blank started things with a two-run triple down the left field line that brought home
Landon Nunes and
Kennedy Hara to give the Mavericks a 2-0 lead.
The Mavericks plated four in the second inning with a Hara sacrifice fly, a two-run double by
Kolby Felix and a Nunes single up the middle.
Newcomer
Tate Blasi put the exclamation point on the game with the team's first home run of the season. Blasi sent a 1-1 pitch over the fence in left field for a two-run homer to make it 8-0.
In the night cap, Colorado Mesa fell behind 8-1 and fought back late but it wasn't enough in an 8-5 win for Cal Poly Pomona.
The Mavericks were the first on the board with a fielder's choice RBI by
Joey Blank that brought home
Kennedy Hara.
The Broncos would go onto to score eight unanswered runs before the Mavericks made their comeback in the seventh.
Kennedy Hara drew a bases loaded hit by pitch for the Mavericks first run of the frame.
Kolby Felix followed with a two run single while
Trevor Tse drew a bases loaded walk two batters later.
The bases were loaded when
Noah Solano struck out on a pitch clock violation that ended the game.
Landon Nunes was the lone Maverick with multiple hits going 2-for-3.
Freshman Jackson Eisenhaur was saddled with the loss in his collegiate debut.
The two teams will conclude the series with a single nine-inning game that is scheduled to start at 11am MST.