CLAREMONT, CA. – The Pomona-Pitzer Baseball team came away with an 8-7 win in their home opener over non-conference opponent Linfield on Friday afternoon at Alumni Field.
 
Season Impact: with the win, the Sagehens improved to 3-1 to start the year.
 
The Sagehens were led by Nate Jakobs who went 3-4 with two RBI's and a home run. Tanner DeGrazia also went 3-4 with a run scored and an RBI while Kade Morihara, Matthew Nishimura, and Andrew An also had two-hit performances in the win.
 
Jake Hilton got the start and his second win in as many starts after he went six innings giving up three runs with 11 strikeouts. Eamon Woods came in relief with two innings and gave up four runs while Eric Prough came on for the save.
 
It took Hilton an inning to settle into the game after he gave up all his runs in the very first inning.  The Wildcats plated three runs in the top of the first off of five hits to take a 3-0 lead.
 
The Sagehens came back with two of their own in the bottom half of the inning with RBI's from Greg Pierantoni and DeGrazia to cut the lead down to 3-2 and JC Ng came through with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the second to even the score at 3-3.
 
Pomona-Pitzer went on to take the lead as Jakobs blasted a home run to right field to put the Sagehens up 5-3 and then the Sagehens scored one run in the fifth, sixth, and seventh inning off of two RBI singles and an error by Linfield to extend the lead to 8-3.  
 
The Wildcats made it interesting late on in the game after an RBI double and a three-run homer to cut the lead down to one run at 8-7 heading into the ninth.
 
Prough came on for the Sagehens to close out the game and after Linfield threatened with a runner on second with two outs, Prough got the final out of the game as the Sagehens took the home opener 8-7.
 
Up Next: The Sagehens will next finish the series against Linfield with a doubleheader on Saturday, February 17^th starting at 11:00 a.m.