Cal Lutheran’s Infectious Play Disables Claremont

MOORPARK —  If hitting is indeed contagious, then the Cal Lutheran baseball team should be quarantined.

The Kingsmen came up with 36 combined hits to sweep Claremont-Mudd, 15-3 and 13-3, in a Division III West regional doubleheader Friday at Moorpark College and take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series.

With one more victory, Cal Lutheran (29-11-1) can advance to the Division III championships May 23-28 at Salem, Va. The Kingsmen and Claremont (28-15) will play today at noon, with a fifth game to follow, if necessary.

The hitting barrage--one day after being manhandled by the Stags, 17-4--coupled with complete-game efforts by right-handers Andrew Barber and Erik Kiszczak, lifted the Kingsmen to the brink of their third championship series in five years.

In the first game, Barber (7-2) had 15 strikeouts, a career high and two short of Cal Lutheran’s single-game record set by Adam Hacker against Caltech in 1993. Barber gave up nine hits and five walks.

Kiszczak (8-2), a freshman, struck out six, yielded five hits and walked four in the second game. He allowed only one earned run and was in command throughout.

“[Barber and Kiszczak] had to come up big,” said Marty Slimak, Cal Lutheran’s coach. “You never know how a team is going to come out after being beat and it all starts with the guy on the hill.”

The Kingsmen, playing as visitors in the first game, got the cue and jumped on left-hander Joe Whitlach (2-4) for 17 hits and 10 runs--all earned--before he was replaced by Sean Smith with one out in the seventh inning. Whitlach, a freshman, had defeated Cal Lutheran, 5-2, on a two-hitter in a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game April 13.

Frank Maldonado, who was four for five with a home run and six runs batted in, and Rich Holmes, who was four for four, led the attack. Teammates Ruben Torres, Mike Young and Tom McGee each had three hits.

Barber struggled in the first two innings, giving up a run in the first and two in the second because of shaky control, but he put it together the rest of the way.

“I started to settle down with the fastball,” Barber said. “As I got along, I felt much more comfortable. . . . My arm felt so good today.”

Cal Lutheran, the home team in the second game, picked up where it left off in the first, taking a 6-3 lead after four innings.

Adam Rauch keyed a four-run fourth with a three-run triple against Matt Raine (7-3), who gave up 10 runs in 6 2/3 innings. Holmes, who homered in the seventh, led off the fourth with a double. He was seven for eight in the doubleheader.

Maldonado collected three more hits and two RBIs in the second game.

Claremont’s Mark Murray, who set a Division III playoff record with four doubles Thursday, had a home run against Kiszczak. It was only the second extra-base hit for the Stags in the doubleheader.

The victory in the first game snapped a seven-game losing streak in the playoffs for the Kingsmen.