CLAREMONT, Calif. – The Ursinus College baseball team broke its offense out of hibernation on Friday, piling up 32 hits in a doubleheader at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, but the Bears' explosion went for naught as the Stags scored 37 runs to sweep a pair of shootouts.
Sophomore Alex Mumme was unstoppable for Ursinus (0-6), going 8-for-9 with two doubles, a home run, and six RBI. But C-M-S put up even gaudier numbers, opening up a 7-0 lead through two innings in a 13-7 victory in the opener and scoring in every inning of a 24-12 slugfest in the nightcap.
Chase Eller finished 6-for-7 with two home runs, seven runs scored, and 12 RBI – six in each game – for the Stags (12-7), who slugged six homers for the afternoon. Eller homered twice in the opener, while Brandon Mitchell (3-for-4, four runs, four RBI) repeated the feat in the second contest.
Senior Travis Kozak had four hits, including an RBI double in the third inning of the opener to reach 100 for his career.
Game 1: C-M-S 13, Ursinus 7
Eller's two-run homer in the first got the Stags off to a fast start, and the home side continued to pile on. The hosts tacked on four more runs in each of the next two innings, Eller's three-run bomb making it 11-3 in the third.
Ursinus scored three of its own in the top of the third, starting with an RBI triple off the bat of sophomore Brian Varani, who plated freshman Tom Jacobs with his first career three-bagger. Kozak's 100th career hit – a double – scored Varani, and the senior eventually crossed home plate on Mumme's two-bagger with two outs.
Mumme added a two-run single in the top of the seventh, but the Stags already led 13-3 and were never threatened.
Five Bears had multiple hits in the first game, including Jacobs, who doubled twice and drove in a run. Varani finished 2-for-4 with two runs, and freshman Eric Gross went 2-for-4 with a run.
Senior Pierce Greenleaf took the loss in his season debut. He was charged with 10 earned runs on 12 hits in 2.1 innings. Freshman Casey Fitzsimmons was sensational in relief, allowing just two walks in 3.2 hitless frames.
Game 2: C-M-S 24, Ursinus 12
The Bears' highest offensive output of the season – by five runs – was far from enough against a Stags attack that pounded out 22 hits and scored in every inning, including six runs in the third and eight in the sixth.
Ursinus led 2-0 and 4-1 before C-M-S took control. Sophomore Dom Fiorentino's RBI single, plus an error, handed the visitors a two-run first. Freshman Jerry Scavone hit an RBI single and Kozak followed with a sacrifice fly for a 4-1 advantage in the second.
The Stags came right back with three in the second, two on Eller's ground-rule double, but Mumme led off the third with his fifth career home run for a 5-4 Ursinus lead. That was as good as it got for the Bears, who surrendered six more runs in the bottom half; half of them came on C.J. Novograda's three-run blast with two outs.
Kozak and junior Carter Usowski notched RBI singles in the fourth to get within 10-7, but Mitchell slugged the first of his two homers to stretch the lead back to five in the bottom of the inning. Eller tacked on another two-run dinger to make it 14-7, but an RBI single by Usowski and a two-run single from Mumme cut it to 14-10 in the sixth.
C-M-S put the game to bed with an eight-run sixth, helped along by an error, to render back-to-back run-scoring doubles from Usowski and Mumme in the seventh a moot point.
Mumme went 4-for-4 with two runs and four RBI, while Usowski was 4-for-5 with two runs and three RBI; Usowski's four hits were double his entire season total from the first five games of the season.
Kozak finished 2-for-4 with two runs, two RBI, and a stolen base, and Jacobs scored three times.
Freshman Nolan Graber allowed eight runs on nine hits in 2.1 innings in his first career start.
Up Next
The Bears conclude their West Coast swing with a single game at Occidental on Saturday.