Pitching and defense help baseball to SCIAC victory

ORANGE, Calif. — Baseball came home with a huge SCIAC victory over Redlands, 2-1, via stout defense and great pitching at Hart Park on Friday, March 31.

Grant Manning pitched six innings of one-run ball, allowing four hits, and striking out three. Brandon Menzel, however, picked up the win in an inning plus one batter of work, holding the Bulldogs scoreless. Turner White earned a hold with a clean eighth and Henry Chabot shut the door collecting his fifth save with a one-two-three ninth.

While offense wasn't the name of today's game, the Panthers had some timely hits, including a two-out sequence in third which gave Chapman its first run.

Brad Shimabuku and Cole Minato showed great plate discipline drawing back-to-back walks and AJ Anzai lined a ball just over the head of the shortstop to bring home Shimabuku.

After Redlands tied the game with a solo-shot in the fifth, the Panthers threatened again in the seventh.

Josh Phillips led off the inning with a double then Shimabuku singled through the five hole. With Minato at the plate he laid down a safety squeeze, which would have scored Phillips anyway, but Minato snuck around the tag attempt reaching first base.

That was all the Panthers would need as the defense committed no errors on the day and Ryan Nopper and Austin Dudas turned four double plays up the middle.

With the victory, Chapman improved to 13-10 overall and 4-3 in SCIAC play. Redlands fell to 11-11 and 3-6. The Panthers will look to pick up two more tomorrow on the road in Redlands at 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.

By Joe Perrino

Assistant SID / Recreation Sports Manager

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