Author: Emily Phillips
After suffering a month-long losing streak, the Tiger baseball team has finally found its rhythm, winning seven of its last 10 match-ups and earning Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) recognition.
The 9-7 victory over Claremont in the final game of the three-game series kicked off the momentum shift for the Tigers. It marked their first SCIAC win for the season and signaled to the conference that the Tigers were not about to give up on their season.
“We got through our losing streak by having the perspective that every day is a new day,” Co-captain Glenn Gray (senior) said. “We treated every day as a new opportunity to get better.”
“As a team, we really had to keep focused during practice and trust that the wins would come eventually,” Jacob Lee (sophomore) said. “With Claremont, we finally had everything come together as a team.”
One win over Claremont was all it took for the Tigers to turn their season around, and they proceeded to sweep the Whittier Poets the very next weekend. The series began with an outstanding performance on April 10 by southpaw co-captain Tyler Eyrich (sophomore).
The Stevenson Ranch, CA native threw a shutout, holding the Poets to just three hits, striking out six and walking just one batter. Eyrich’s success was not limited to the mound, as he doubled to lead off the third inning and scored what would be the winning run of the game. Eyrich earned SCIAC Athlete of the Week recognition for his performance, and the Tigers used the momentum to win the next two games against the Poets.
“I feel greatly honored for my award, but am more proud of the fact that my performance helped lead to a sweep of a conference series,” Eyrich said. However, he was quick to point out that he was not alone in bringing home the win. “My shutout performance was greatly assisted by a couple of great catches by Glenn and Anthony [Salsedo (sophomore)],” he said.
The Tigers continued on to achieve one of their proudest moments of the season – upsetting 11th seeded University of Redlands Bulldogs 6-3 in front of Oxy fans on Anderson Field.
“It was a very emotional game, and being able to beat them here in front of our home crowd made it even sweeter,” Gray said.The game was very evenly played until an impressive eighth-inning rally by the Tigers as they sent 10 batters to the plate. With two runners on base and one out, Pedro Aldape (first-year) doubled down the left field line, driving in Lee from second for the game-tying RBI. Three batters later, Salsedo hit to bring in Aldape and Lee and ultimately clinch the win.
“There was unreal enthusiasm for that game,” Lee said. “Getting excited to knock them [Redlands] out of first place was more than enough motivation.”
The Tigers lost to University of La Verne and non-conference Menlo College earlier in the week, but commanded respect from the Poets once again, beating them 6-3 on the road Saturday. Coming off of the momentum they’ve earned in the last few weeks, the Tigers look forward to facing Claremont-Mudd-Scripps again at home on Friday, April 30 before taking on Pomona-Pitzer on the road for the final game of the year on May 1.”With two games left, there is not time to hold anything back,” Lee said. “With Claremont, we know we can win. We’ve done it before. Pomona poses a challenge, but like Redlands, we are looking to spoil someone’s one seed in league.”
“I expect us to win both of the remaining games this season,” Gray said. “Until the last out, we are going to play hard, put up a fight and lay it all out on the line. If we do that we will be in good shape.”
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