WHITTIER, Calif. – The Whittier College
baseball team couldn't avoid the series sweep on Saturday
afternoon as Cal Lutheran held off two late rallies by the Poets to
pick up a 10-8 and 5-4 win at Memorial Field.
After scoring five runs in the top of the seventh inning of the
first game the Poets answered with three runs in the home half of
the inning to tie the score at eight.
The seventh inning rally marked the fifth straight frame in
which Whittier scored at least one run. WC's half of the
seventh featured three singles, a walk and a throwing error that
resulted in two Poet runs.
Josh Genzuk hit a slow roller down the third
baseline that was barehanded but thrown into right field. The
throwing miscue allowed Nick Amicone to score from
first and Ben Cohon to waltz in from second.
Reed Tuttle picked up his first hit of the
afternoon with a single up the middle to score Genzuk and with that
the Poets had things all knotted up at 8-8.
Whittier opened the top of the eighth by walking the first two
batters. CLU sacrificed the runners to second and third and later
plated the winning run on a fielder's choice to the
shortstop. The Kingsmen added one more insurance run in the ninth
and didn't allow a Whittier base runner past first in its
final two at bats.
As a team the Poets collected 13 hits in the first game and had
multi-hit games from Chris Hylland, Darby
Weppner, Ryan Crawford, Amicone and
Genzuk.
Mike Rueda threw 5.0 solid innings. Eh allowed
three runs (one earned) on six hits with four strike outs.
Ryan Schwenn tossed 2.0 inning of relief and gave
up one earned run (five total) on five hits. Taylor
Fallon threw the final 2.0 innings and suffered the loss.
He gave up just one hit but walked four batters and allowed two
runs.
In the second game the Poets tailed 5-2 after six and climbed to
within one in the bottom of the eighth. Amicone roped an
RBI-double to left center that scored Cory
Goodchild and a throwing error two batters later allowed
pinch runner Tyler Bogart to cross home to make
the score 5-4. Tuttle, who reached base on the throwing error,
advance all the way to third on a wild pitch and passed ball but
was left stranded.
CLU scored three runs in the ninth and in Whittier's final
at bat it had the tying run at the plate with no outs before the
game was called due to darkness. All stats after the eighth inning
did not count.
Starting pitcher Keith Hoefel suffered the
loss. He threw 5.1 innings and allowed five runs (three earned) on
eight hits. Austin Nogueira went 2.2 innings of
relief at gave up just two hits.
Jacob Storrer went 3-for-4 and Weppner and
Hylland each had two hits in the loss.
Whittier returns to the diamond on Wednesday as it hosts
Principia at 3 pm.
