Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Just like the first game of the three-game set, Cal Lutheran needed 11 innings to pick up the win and earn the series sweep of the Poets as it won the pitcher's duel, 3-2, Saturday afternoon. The Kingsmen won the first game, 8-2.
In similar fashion to Friday's game and the first game of the doubleheader, CLU scored in the opening inning to make the Poets play catch-up.
Whittier (8-10, 4-8 SCIAC) responded in the third with a one-out, two-RBI, double by Cory Goodchild to score Sean-Michael Nada and Andrew Vallejo. However, the Poets left the bases loaded as Darby Weppner went down on strikes.
The Poets' pitching staff held the Kingsmen to just five hits over the final eight innings but Cal Lutheran was just as effective from the mound. Whittier put together just three hits the rest of the game but left runners in scoring position in the fourth, fifth and eighth frames.
Nada drew a two-out walk in the fourth and stole second but the inning ended in a groundout. Dan Gleiberman reached base on an error and made his way to second on an Austin Straus single but both were left on the bags after a strike out and foul out ended the fifth inning.
Whittier's best chance to score came in the eighth stanza when Alex Mitchell reached third base. Alex Gast started the inning with a one-out single to left and was pinch run for by Mitchell. Nick Amicone kept the inning alive with a two-out single to put runners on the corners but Mitchell got no closer than 90-feet from home.
Cal Lutheran won the game in the 11th on an RBI-single through the right side of the infield.
Casey Serna started and went 5.2 innings. He allowed two runs on three hits. Austin Nogueira threw a solid 2.1 innings out of the pen, allowing two hits. Mike Rueda tossed a perfect ninth frame while Andrew Pigott allowed one run on one hit in 1.1 innings. Pigott suffered the loss.
In the first game of the day, the Kingsmen got to Ryan Schwenn early as they plated three runs in the bottom of the first. Schwenn settled down and went 7.0 innings. He allowed six runs (four earned) on 11 hits.
The Poets made it a one-run ball game with a two-spot in the fifth but didn't get any closer. Vallejo picked up an RBI-single to score Nada and Gleiberman drove in Vallejo to cut the Cal Lu lead to 3-2.
CLU answered with two runs in its ensuing at bat and added three combined runs in the seventh and eighth frames.
Whittier will return to action on Wednesday, March 16, as it hosts Ithaca at 3 pm.
