No. 17 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges split a 50-run doubleheader in pouring rain at No. 8 Johns Hopkins University to force a rubber game on Sunday in the Super Regional of the 2026 NCAA Division III Baseball Championship.
 
After coming within a half-inning of victory in a four-hour, 16-15 extra-inning slugfest between the top two home run-hitting teams in the nation to start the day, the Stags faced elimination but came through on their last out to extend the game and win it in 10 themselves. The foes combined for 14 home runs over the 19 full innings between the two contests.
 
Game 1 Box Score – 15-16 (10)
 
Game One brought all the scoring fans hoped for as the teams combined for 31 runs as the hosts snatched a win from the grasp of CMS after Bryce Didrickson had led off the top of the 10^th inning with a home run in much the same way fellow SCIAC ballclub Pomona-Pitzer Colleges fell to the Blue Jays last week. An error in the bottom of the frame allowed the leadoff runner to reach base and two hit-by-pitches later, rookie Tegin Maloney got a strikeout to pull within one out of sealing the game but a wild pitch, walk and throwing error on a back-pick attempt handed the result to Johns Hopkins. Max Pemberton had recorded four RBI going 3-for-5 with two runs and was one of five Stags to launch a home run, with Didrickson notching two along with a pair of walks to reach base five times.
 
Game 2 Box Score – 10-9 (10)
 
CMS scored first in the second game, playing as the home team and batting in the bottom of each frame but the run scored on a double play that prevented a bigger number going onto the scoreboard. The hosts equalized in the second inning and took the lead on a two-run bomb in the third, but the Stags immediately leveled things on a pair of bases-loaded walks.
 
The Blue Jays tacked on three more runs over the next two innings but then faced the big bat of Alex Henderson, who had gone 0-for-5 in the opener but smashed a monster two-run bomb to right field followed by a Carter Bennett solo shot the other way to tie the game again at 6-6. Henderson came back up to bat in the next inning and ripped an RBI single through the right side for the go-ahead score.
 
Once again, Johns Hopkins had an answer and regained the lead in the seventh on a throwing error by Pemberton, who promptly rectified the situation with a solo shot. Both pitchers managed to lock in for the eighth, which would be the only full scoreless inning of the game, before more late-inning theatrics arose. JHU took the lead in the ninth on an RBI double – the only hit 6’10” reliever Brayden Thomas allowed in a clutch three-inning appearance – and CMS found itself down to not just the final out but the final strike in a 1-2 count after back-to-back strikeouts followed a leadoff walk by Dillon Martin. Blaise Heher laced a double to the wall down the left field line to move Martin to third and keep the inning going, bringing Keegan Cabrera to the plate as a pinch-hitter. Five days after leveling the score in another pinch-hit appearance in the Regional final, the sophomore came through again jumping on a 1-0 pitch to slap it through the left side, which brought Martin home with Hehir chugging after, though the potential winning run was thrown out at the plate to send the game to extras.
 
Thomas remained on the mound for a third inning, marking only the third multi-inning appearance of the season for the graduate student who had not allowed an earned run all season. Though one batter reached on a hit-by-pitch, the other three struck out and Thomas handed the Stags a chance to walk it off in the bottom of the 10^th.
 
A pop-up recorded the first out but Didrickson and Henderson both worked walks and Rider Gordon singled through the left side to load the bases with just the one out. Martin then stepped to the plate and did not have to take a swing, watching four balls go by to bring home Didrickson as the winning run and force a rubber game, which will take place on Sunday, May 24 due to impending weather in Baltimore tomorrow.
 
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