WHITTIER, Calif. – The Whittier College
baseball team overcame four errors in the first three innings of
the game to upset No. 24 Redlands on Friday afternoon at Memorial
Field. The Poets pushed the tying run across the plate in the sixth
and scored the eventual game-winner in the eighth to shock the
Bulldogs.
Whittier's half of the sixth started with senior
Chris Hylland who hit a pinch-hit single up the
middle. Hylland, who has been limited to action because of a knee
injury, was pinch-run for by Reed Tuttle. The
Poets needed only one more batter tie the score at 4-4 as freshman
Jacob Storrer double down the left field line to
score Tuttle from first.
The Poets sacrifice bunted Storrer to third but the purple and
gold left him stranded on third as the Bulldogs managed to get out
of the inning.
Keith Hoefel went to the mound to start the
seventh and pitched his first of three perfect innings. He relieved
senior Kevin Pigott who allowed four runs (two
earned) on eight hits with two strike outs in his final start for
the purple and golf.
In the home half of the eighth the Poets were aided by
back-to-back errors by the Bulldogs to put runners on first and
second with no outs. Whittier attempted to sacrifice bunt
Andrew Vallejo to put runners in scoring position
but his bunt went right back to the pitcher who threw Tuttle out at
third. The Poets went back to their bench and called on
Darby Weppner to pinch hit with one out, and
despite not getting a hit, he still came through.
Weppner hit a ball to the second baseman who committed his
second error of the inning and allowed Storrer to score from
second. The run was the difference as Hoefel earned his
second win of the season with a perfect ninth frame.
Storrer finished the afternoon with a team-high two hits and two
runs scored while senior Ben Cohon singled in his
final home game.
Whittier scored one run in the third as Nick
Amicone drove in Tyler Bogart who led the
inning off with a double. The Poets' fourth started with a
one-out double from Storrer and featured an RBI-double from
Ian Bablewski and an RBI-ground out from
Pete Mitchell.
Whittier will conclude its season tomorrow afternoon in
Claremont, Calif., against the Stags.
