WHITTIER, Calif. - The Whittier College baseball team took the field for the final time this season on Tuesday afternoon, as the Leopards of the University of La Verne visited Memorial Field for Senior Day winning in extras 4-3.
Prior to the game, Head Coach Mike Rizzo recognized his seven seniors who were taking part in their final game of their collegiate career. These seniors included Alex Mitchell, Michael Olmstead, John Marciano, Josh Genzuk, Bobby Santoyo, Donny Young, and Daniel Vidales.
La Verne jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the top of the second. Poet starter Santoyo, allowed four consecutive singles (two of which did not leave the infield) to start the frame. The Poets were retired in order through the first three innings, but freshman Jonathan Whipple knocked a lead off single to left to start off the fourth. A one out single by junior Julian Barzilli advanced Whipple to third. Young, who got the nod at the designated hitter spot, skied a 1-2 pitch into left to plate Whipple with a sacrifice fly, which cut the deficit to two.
Santoyo would settle down following the rocky second inning, retiring the next 15 of the 18 hitters he faced over the subsequent five innings. With Santoyo dealing, the Whittier offense came through in the bottom of the seventh. Barzilli led off with a single, and after swiping second was advanced to third on a ground out. Sophomore Stephen Zavala was hit by a pitch in the next at bat, and with runners on the corners and one away senior Genzuk stepped to the plate. Genzuk laid down a textbook bunt to execute the safety squeeze, allowing Barzilli to score and advancing Zavala to second. With the score 3-2, sophomore Ben Cerami delivered in the following plate appearance by driving an RBI single to left field that plated Zavala.
Whittier had an excellent opportunity to take the lead in the bottom of the eighth, loading the bases with no outs, but couldn't push any runs across after Barzilli went down swinging followed by a double play where the left fielder threw out Olmstead attempting to score from third after a catch in foul territory.
Santoyo continued to pitch well, going all the way into the ninth before being replaced by junior Curtis Martin. After the Poets failed to score in the bottom of the ninth after getting the winning won ninety feet away with one out, the game went into extra innings. Martin struck out the first two batters of the inning to start the eleventh, but would commit a throwing error on a grounder that led to two consecutive hits that would plate the go ahead run for La Verne. Whittier then came up in the bottom half of the eleventh but couldn't answer seeing their Senior Day spoiled with a 4-3 loss.
Barzilli and Whipple were both 2-4, and Zavala, by reaching base in all three of his plate appearances, took sole control of fourth place on the all time single-season OBP list. He also tied assistant coach Dan Gleiberman for second place on the all time single-season walks list with two today, giving him 29 in 2013.
The Poets finish 2013 15-24, 12-16 SCIAC and welcome back their starting rotation along with key role players in Barzilli and Zavala for 2014.
