Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
WHITTIER, Calif. – The Whittier College baseball team made history Tuesday as they extended their winning streak to 11 games as they cruised to the 11-5 victory over Drew University to improve to 11-5, 9-0 SCIAC.
The streak which started back on February 14 against Caltech has gone through five different opponents and is now the longest winning streak in Whittier College baseball history within the modern era.
The last time a program achieved close to this feat was the 1959 baseball team, which started off 10-0 en route to winning the SCIAC Championship.
After two scoreless innings, Whittier struck for four in the bottom of the third sparked by a two run blast from Stephen Zavala over the left field fence and a Cody Martinez double down the right field line.
The Poets would scrap another two across in the fifth following a Julian Barzilli double that plated Zavala and a run down between first and second that caught Ryan Nakamura but not before scoring Barzilli from third.
Leading 6-1 the Poets added to their lead with two in the sixth following a Graham Pimm single up the middle and a Ben Cerami hit by pitch. But they weren't done there as they would plate another three in the ensuing inning with a triple coming from Jonathan Whipple and a Zavala single up the middle.
The Rangers would put together a late rally in the ninth bringing across three runs chasing Cristian Fajardo but that gave way to Cerami who came in and retired the last two batters helping the Poets secure a key non-conference victory.
Nick Garcia achieved the win and is now 3-2 after going 4.0 innings giving up a mere two hits. Ken Myers picked up the loss for Drew as they went 5.0 innings giving up four runs on eight hits.
Zavala on the day finished 3-4 with two runs scored and three runs batted in, while Whipple was 1-4 with three runs scored and two RBI's.
Whittier looks to extend their winning streak to 12 games this Thursday, March 13 as they host Kean University with the first pitch scheduled for 3:00pm.
