The Caltech baseball team is once again relying on the arm of Narragansett native Brendan Flaherty, who started his junior campaign on the hill in sparkling form for a Beaver nine that is hoping to build upon last year's relative level of success.
In his five starts thus far, the Lake Forest Academy alum is showing why he is the undisputed top gun in the Caltech pitching armory, racking up 35 strikeouts in 30 1/3 innings of work while sporting a 2.95 earned run average.
Flaherty has twice fanned at least 10 batters in a contest, punching out a dozen versus Chicago on Feb. 15 and notching only one fewer in a Feb. 28 tilt with Occidental, going the distance in a 4-2 doubling up of the Tigers where he threw an eye popping 162 pitches.
There was early adversity for the righty against Oxy, as he surrendered a solo home run off the bat of Thomas Munch in the first inning, but it proved to be the sum total of the Tiger offensive output until the final frame.
Much-needed run support for Flaherty did not come until the sixth, when Caltech hung a three-spot courtesy of a pair of singles that plated runners that were occupying third base and a hit batsman with the bases loaded.
Two innings later, the Beavers added an extra layer of cushion to their lead with a double from Kailen Hargenrader, enabling Thorsen Kristufek to cross home safely after the latter reached on an error.
The final three outs were challenging for Flaherty to obtain as he started to reach the upper limits of his endurance, with his task further complicated by the Tigers' first two batters of the ninth both getting on base.
This development meant that Oxy could now tie the game with one swing, but Griffen Roge and Munch came up empty-handed. The Tigers' hopes fell on the shoulders of Ben Rutkin, who proceeded to drive home Logan Rooney to slash the deficit to two. However, this was as close as Occidental would get to Caltech, as Flaherty finished his outing by freezing Miles Capobianco with the bat glued to the Tiger's shoulders and the potential tying run stranded on first.
Last season, the Beavers reached heights that they had not scaled since 1960, requiring multiple numbers in the win column for the first time this century as they wrapped up their slate with a 10-30 overall record.
Early signs are that this spring's version of the Caltech squad have every chance to at least approach that total, as they currently possess a mark of 5-9 heading into this weekend's three-game set versus Dickinson.
Prior to squaring off with the Red Devils, the Beavers traveled to Arizona on Saturday for non-league meetings with Crown and Linfield, falling 13-4 to the Polars before being bested in the nightcap by the Wildcats via an 18-8 decision.
Ticker
Former Skipper Robbie Lamond went 6-for-6 with three extra-base hits and a pair of runs driven in on Sunday as Wheaton’s baseball team outlasted Tufts 14-10 in 10 innings to improve the Lyons' record on the young season to 3-2.
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