The smell of freshly mown grass, the wet dirt, and well-worn gloves; baseball was in the air this weekend. Saturday marked yet another exciting faceoff between the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pomona-Pitzer baseball teams. With the Sixth Street rivalry renewed and two games played, Pomona-Pitzer carried the day, beating CMS 8-3 in the 11 a.m opener and then again 7-5 in the 2 p.m. rematch, taking the series.
It was a dark day for the Stags as they saw their record deteriorate to 12-16 while the Sagehens improved to 15-15 on the season. Pitcher Jeremy Jess PZ ’20 pitched a beautiful complete game to improve his record to 4-1. Jess faced just 35 batters in nine innings, surrendering only four hits and giving up three earned runs on a home run to the Stags’ Trey Smith CM ’18 and a sac fly to Emmett Covello CM ’20. The P-P Sagehens managed to put up 14 hits against CMS pitching in the convincing win.
Game two was closer but not close enough for the Stags. The score was 6-3 after the third inning, and P-P never looked back, cruising through the rest of the game to the comfortable 7-5 win. P-P’s Bryce Rogan PO ’18 was on base six times between the two games to lead the Stags, while Nicholas Radich PZ ’18 improved his record to 5-4 with a solid six inning performance as pitcher.
“Despite the outcome of the games, we showed a lot of grit,” Pat Shore CM ’19 said. “Each time they scored and we were down, we were able to punch back and score runs in response. That’s something we’ve been struggling with this season, so it was good to see the bats finally come alive when we needed them to. We played well defensively, especially in the last game, so I have high hopes for our success in the weeks following.”
When asked about the effect of the rivalry on his team’s performance, Jack Savard CM ’19 noted that “the rivalry positively affects our performance because it gives us extra motivation to play our best. It’s not just a win that’s on the line, but also our reputation. Each game we play against Pomona has a higher level of energy that pushes every player to try his hardest.”
Although this is the last time the Stags will take on the rival Sagehens this season, that momentum is sure to carry through when they face off next year.
CMS will take to the field again at 3 p.m. on Friday at home to kick off their series against Chapman University.