Henderson Muffles Bats of Cal Lutheran : College baseball: Redlands pitcher shines in 4-2 win over No. 1 Kingsmen.

The ending might have been flawed, but Vennie Henderson’s performance Friday against the Cal Lutheran baseball team had to be considered a gem.

Henderson, a 6-foot-1 junior left-hander with a fall-off-the-table sinker, thoroughly frustrated host Cal Lutheran in a 4-2, Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory.

The win moved second-place Redlands (16-9, 11-2 in conference play) one game behind Cal Lutheran (21-5, 12-1), the nation’s top-ranked team in NCAA Division III. The three-game series will conclude today with a doubleheader at Redlands, the first game starting at 11 a.m.

Henderson (5-2), against a team with a .336 batting average, scattered six hits, struck out eight and fell two outs shy of recording the first shutout against the Kingsmen in more than two years.

In the ninth, Henderson yielded a one-out walk to Eddie Lample and a single to pinch-hitter Chris Fick. After a brief visit by Coach Ken Miller, Henderson surrendered a two-run double to Gabe Diaz. That brought another visit by Miller and an end to Henderson’s day.

Reliever Marc DiCarlo retired the final two batters to record his first save.

“I would have liked to have finished it, but I’m happy,” Henderson said. “My (teammates) can back me up and shut them down and that’s what we need. I’m happy whether they close it or I close it.”

For eight innings, the door was never really open for Cal Lutheran. The Kingsmen stranded 12 baserunners and repeatedly were one hit away from generating a rally. Henderson escaped jams in the third and sixth innings with line-drive outs to the outfield.

In the eighth, Henderson yielded a one-out walk, then escaped when right fielder Chadd Cook made a sliding catch of a line drive off the bat of Pete Martin. Henderson fooled Lupe Carillo with a breaking ball to end the inning.

Cal Lutheran scored fewer runs than in any of its previous 34 conference games.

“Every time Vennie got behind in the count, the guy took it to another level,” Cal Lutheran Coach Rich Hill said. “The guy had guts. That’s the best pitching performance I’ve seen against us in two years.”

The Bulldogs scored three runs off senior right-hander Jeff Berman (7-1) in the second inning. Tom Lafever delivered a run-scoring single. Lafever and Tony Acosta both scored from third on errors by Diaz, the shortstop.