Photo by: Nicole Gervais
REDLANDS, Calif. – The No. 18 Redlands baseball team officially clinched the SICAC Championships Friday afternoon with a comeback victory over Whittier, 3-2, at The Yard.
The Poets (16-22, 8-19) played seven innings of shutout baseball led by starting pitcher Ryan Schwenn who scattered six hits over 7.1 innings.
Schwenn sat down Redlands in order on four occasions which includes the third inning where he induced the double play ball to counter a lead-off walk. He allowed two free passes for the game and sat down one batter on strikes.
However, after opening the eighth frame with a harmless groundout, Redlands put the next two batters on with a single to right field and through the right side, respectively. The next batter cleared the bases with a three-run homerun to put the Bulldogs in front 3-2.
Austin Straus drew a two-out walk in the ninth but that proved all the offense the Poets would muster.
Whittier put the pressure on the nationally ranked Bulldogs by breaking the scoreless tie in the top half of the eighth. Andrew Vallejo drove in Tyler Bogart on a single to right center and after an error allowed Sean-Michael Nada to reach base, Vallejo scored to put the purple and gold up 2-0.
Vallejo finished the afternoon with three hits, pushing his season average to a team-high .403.
Reed Tuttle and Bogart collected the other two hits for Whittier.
The loss is the fifth of the season by one run for the Poets.
Whittier will look to end the 2011 season on a high note as it hosts Claremont-M-S tomorrow afternoon at 1 pm on Senior Day.
