THE BASICS:
 
- Records: MIT (2-6-1); Pomona-Pitzer (15-3)
 
- Scores: Game One: Pomona-Pitzer 15, MIT 9; Game Two: Pomona-Pitzer 14, MIT 7
 
- Location: Claremont, Calif. (Alumni Field)
 
- The Lead: On the first day of the six-game California trip, the MIT baseball team dropped a pair of non-conference games to Pomona-Pitzer on Saturday afternoon at Alumni Field. The first game was a 15-9 final, followed by a 14-7 score in game two.
 
GAME ONE - HOW IT HAPPENED:
 
- After three scoreless innings to start the game, senior Nick Aiello (Freehold, N.J.) got the Engineers on the board in the fourth with a two-run homer to left center for the 2-0 lead. MIT eventually had runners on the corners with one out, with junior Erik Anderson (Palos Verdes, Calif.) scoring on a sacrifice fly to right from first-year Malachi Soqui (Castaic, Calif.).
 
- In the fifth, the Sagehens picked up an unearned run after an MIT error as Jimmy Legg came home on a sacrifice fly. That was the lone run off of MIT starter Graham Cartwright (La Jolla, Calif.), who threw a season-high five innings. Things came undone for MIT in the bottom of the sixth as Pomona-Pitzer took advantage of two MIT errors and put together six hits to score 11 runs for the 12-3 advantage.
 
- The lead eventually moved to 15-4 before the Engineers put together a five-run ninth inning to account for the 15-9 final. In that inning, RBI hits from sophomores Michael Finch (Brentwood, Tenn.) and Kennan Gumbs (New York, N.Y.) got things started. That was followed by a one-out, two-run homer to deep left field by Anderson.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS:
 
- Aiello finished the game 2-for-4 with three RBI and one run scored, while Anderson was 2-for-5 with two RBI and two runs scored.
 
- Cartwright allowed one run on five hits and two strikeouts in the no-decision, while first-year Ethan Siegel (Austin, Texas) took the loss in relief to fall to 0-1 overall.
 
- David Bedrosian was one of four players with multiple hits for the Sagehens as he was 3-for-5 with three RBI. On the mound, Eric Prough improved to 2-0 with two innings of relief after a five-inning effort from the starter Harry Deliyannis.
 
GAME TWO - HOW IT HAPPENED:
 
- In the first, sophomore Teddy Schoenfeld (Boulder, Colo.) reached on a leadoff error and came around from second on an RBI single up the middle from Finch. In the second, Schoenfeld struck for a deep three-run homer to right that gave the visitors the early 4-0 advantage. The Sagehens cut the lead in half in the bottom of the third with two-out, two-run homer to right by JC Ng to make it 4-2 after three.
 
- In the top of the fifth, Anderson connected on his second homer of the day as this one went to right center for the 5-2 MIT lead. Pomona-Pitzer picked up a single run in the bottom of the inning and had two on with two outs before MIT starter Brian Rapanan (Gurnee, Ill.) induced a pop out to second to work out of the jam.
 
- The Sagehens scored a single run to pull within 5-3, but the Engineers countered with a pair in the top of the sixth for the 7-3 edge. Both of those runs came in on a two-RBI bloop single to right that scored Schoenfeld and senior Cory O'Shea (Glen Allen, Va.).
 
- The back-and-forth game continued in the bottom of the inning as Pomona-Pitzer scored five runs on just one hit to seize the 8-7 lead. The Sagehens put up a six-run eighth inning as well for the 14-7 final.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS:
 
- Over his five innings, Rapanan scattered five hits with three runs allowed and three strikeouts in the no-decision. Junior Matt Leonard (San Antonio, Texas) took the loss in relief to drop to 0-2 on the season. Schoenfeld led the MIT offense with three hits in the game, along with a pair of hits from junior Jake Sonandres (Torrance, Calif.).
 
- Ethan Collins earned the win and is now 2-0 for the Sagehens as he scattered three hits over 3.1 innings of relief. Isaac Kim was 4-for-6 at the plate with three RBI, while Ng had three hits, three runs scored and three RBI.
 
UP NEXT:
 
- MIT wraps up the three-game series with the Sagehens on Sunday, March 20th with a game beginning at 12 p.m. Pacific Time.
 
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