CLAREMONT, CA. – The Pomona-Pitzer Baseball team split their doubleheader against non-conference opponent Willamette on Saturday afternoon at Alumni Field. 

Season Impact: With the split, the Sagehens move to 4-1 on the year. 

Pomona-Pitzer 2 , Willamette 1

The Sagehens only came up with four hits after Caleb Millikan, Nate Jakobs, Donovan Crook, and Peter Savas landed in the hit column, but Millikan registered the only RBI of the game for the Sagehens. Jake Hilton got the start in game one of the three-game series and went 5.2 innings with three hits given up and one run with four strikeouts in the no-decision. Eric Prough came on in relief for Hilton and picked up the win with 1.1 innings and Eamon Woods closed out the game for his first save of the season.

Quiet bats in game one of the doubleheader with just three hits between the two teams through the first three innings.  The big moment early on was the solo shot in the first inning for the Bearcats to give them a 1-0 lead early.

The Sagehens waited until the sixth inning to get the runs they needed but Millikan came up big with an RBI single to left field that ended up being trouble for the left fielder and the Sagehens were able to score two as Jakobs and David Bedrosian came around to score to put the Sagehens up 2-1.

The Bearcats had a chance late to spoil game one of the doubleheader for the Sagehens after they loaded the bases in the ninth, but Woods was able to get out of trouble and slam the door shut for his first save of the season.

Pomona-Pitzer 4, Willamette 9

The Sagehens were led by David Bedrosian who went 2-3 with a run scored and an RBI in the loss. Isaac Kim also had two hits with two RBI and a run scored while JC Ng, Matthew Nishimura, and William Kinney had one each.

Harry Deliyannis got the start in game two after five innings pitched and gave up four runs with six strikeouts. Ethan Collins entered the game in relief of Deliyannis as well as Enoch Kim, and Landon Carter. 

The Bearcats started game two of the doubleheader with a run in their first at-bats after an RBI single gave them a 1-0 lead.

Willamette took advantage again in the top of the fourth with a man on third and a groundout to the second baseman doubled their lead over the Sagehens at 2-0. The Bearcats added two more in the top of the fifth on an RBI up the middle and held a 4-0 lead.

The Sagehens' bats started to come alive in the bottom of the first after Bedrosian smacked a double to left that brought home JC Ng and Isaac Kim followed with an RBI single to cut the lead in half at 4-2 and Ng came back in the bottom of the sixth with an RBI single to bring the Sagehens within one at 4-3.

Willamette came back and answered with a run scored off a double play and the Sagehens only gave up one run with no outs and the bases loaded in the top of the seventh to keep it at 5-3.

Kim brought the Sagehens back to one after a solo shot to left, but the Bearcats piled on four more runs in the top of the eighth to hand the Sagehens their first loss of the 2023 season.

Up Next: The Sagehens and Bearcats will finish their three-game series with a rubber game on Sunday at 11:00 a.m.