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Grant Manning celebrates a strikeout.
Grant Manning (Photo by Larry Newman)
Posted: May 10, 2023

Baseball readies for first-ever postseason contest with Stags

ORANGE, Calif. — Baseball gears up for another trip to the SCIAC tournament, traveling to Claremont for a first round matchup against the Claremont-M-S Stags on Pomona-Pitzer's field. First pitch is set for 3 p.m.Thursday afternoon.

This is the first time since 2018 the Panthers haven't hosted the SCIAC tournament at Hart Park. They went on to win the tournament that season.

Here are some things to know about the upcoming tournament.

The Field

1. La Verne

2. CMS

3. Chapman

4. Cal Lutheran

Funky Format

The SCIAC baseball tournament takes a new form this year as the tournament is generally set at the first and second seeds for single games on Friday, and then at the first seed on Saturday and Sunday.

This year, the first-round games shift to Thursday at the first and second seed sites. Friday becomes the second round games with the winners playing at the site of the higher seed and the losers playing at the site of the higher seed.

The Panthers would host a second round game at Hart if they matched up with Cal Lutheran in either the winner or loser bracket games.

Saturday consists of the elimination game between the winner of the loser bracket game and the loser of the winner bracket game. Then the first championship game follows after. If necessary the two teams play again on Sunday in a winner-take-all game.

The Matchup

The Panthers will take on the Stags for the fourth time this season. These two teams met way back in the first month of the season. CMS took two-out-of-three from the Panthers, sweeping a double header 5-0 and 6-2 on Saturday. The Panthers won 10-1 on Sunday, Feb. 27

At that point in the season the Panthers were 2-5, but since then they've posted a 24-9 record. 

Chapman Baseball Game Notes

  • The Panthers are hitting .295 as a team.

  • Their team ERA is 3.81 and their three starters have an average ERA of 3.19 through 209 innings pitched (Grant Manning, Wyatt Thompson, Max Banks)

  • Manning and Thompson both eclipsed the 200 career strikeout mark this season.

  • Cole Minato leads the team in batting average (.371) and has 19 multi-hit games and only eight strikeouts.

  • Chapman went two and out in last year's SCIAC tournament, losing to Cal Lutheran and Pomona-Pitzer, but then received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, and won the Orange regional against those same teams.

  • This will be the first time the Panthers and Stags have met in the SCIAC tournament.

  • Excluding the shortened 2020 season, the Panthers have played in the NCAA tournament for four consecutive years. 

  • Brad Shimabuku is the only Panther that remains from the 2019 National Championship team. 

  • Scott Laverty is in his 10th season as the head coach of the Panthers. His record at the school is 272-122 (.690).

 

By Joe Perrino

Assistant SID / Recreation Sports Manager

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