PASADENA, Calif. – It might seem counterintuitive that a pitcher could be the most valuable player in a 21-18 baseball game, but Brady Kenning proved to be an exception on Saturday. Throwing the final 4.0 innings and allowing just one hit and one walk over that stretch, Kenning slowed a Caltech offense that had scored 18 runs in less than six full innings. That gave the Cougars a chance to rally for the fourth and final time, earning their first win of the season.

David Steffen led off the top of the first with a single and scored three batters later on a Ben Meuser RBI single to give the Cougars a 1-0 lead. Caltech would answer back with a run in the first, two in the second, and an unearned run in the third to take a 4-1 lead.

The first of four Minnesota Morris comebacks was in the top of the fourth. Ashton Pauly led off with a single and would score on a balk to make it 4-2. As the inning continued, Owen Dylong drove in Ty Beasley and Landen Meyerdirk added a sacrifice fly to bring Dylong home, tying things up at 4-4.

That tie lasted only until the bottom of the fourth when Caltech took advantage of two Cougar errors to extend the inning and push five runs across, retaking a 9-4 advantage against Minnesota Morris starter Max Binnicker and reliever Trevor Mong.

Caltech returned the favor in the top of the fifth inning. Meuser reached on an error to start the inning off and was tripled home by Ethan Schmitz. Pauly then had a sacrifice fly that allowed Schmitz to come home, leaving it at 9-6. After a Beaver pitching change, the Cougars were issued four free passes. Beasley scored on a wild pitch and with the bases loaded, a Meyerdirk walk forced Keegan Jonas in. Ryan McGie finished it off with a sacrifice fly to level things once again at 9-9.

The see-saw battle continued in the bottom of the fifth when Garrett Knuf connected on a two-run homer to give Caltech an 11-9 edge. Minnesota Morris kept attacking at the plate however, with Schmitz leading off the sixth with a double. With the bases loaded, Jonas drove Schmitz home on a sac fly and a Dylong single brought Pauly home to knot the score at 11-11 and end the day of Caltech reliever Raymond Provost.

Facing new reliever Arjun Pradhan, Minnesota Morris immediately took the lead with a RBI groundout from Steffen, followed by a RBI single from Meyerdirk. McGie connected on a ground-rule double that scored Meyerdirk from second and the inning ended with a Meuser double to drive home McGie before Meuser was tagged out at third. The Cougars took a 15-11 lead into the bottom of the sixth.

The Beavers weren't done just yet. The first eight hitters of the inning reached base for Caltech, during which time Minnesota Morris scrolled through two relievers and fell behind yet again, 17-15. Kenning entered with the bases loaded in a tie game and an infield single from Knuf put the home side ahead by two, but from there Kenning struck out a pair and allowed just a sac fly that made it 18-15.

With the bases loaded and two down in the top of the seventh, Steffen and Meyerdirk came up with clutch RBI singles that each drove in two runs, putting Minnesota Morris ahead for good, 19-18. Kenning induced three straight flyouts in the bottom of the seventh and the Cougars came back with a couple insurance runs in the top of the eighth. With runners on second and third, Beasley singled in Meuser before Jonas had a sac fly to score Pauly, increasing the lead to three runs.

Another 1-2-3 inning from Kenning in the eighth ran his streak to nine straight batters retired and it reached 10 in the bottom of the ninth before he issued a one-out walk. Working out of the stretch proved to be no problem as he retired Brendan Flaherty and Mark Hu to finish off the win.

Six batters in the Cougar lineup ended with multiple hits, including three apiece for Meyerdirk, Meuser, Beasley, and Dylong. Meyerdirk finished the day with five RBIs.

Minnesota Morris wraps up its trip to California tomorrow morning with a 10 a.m. (8 a.m. PST) contest against Macalester College on the campus of Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks.