Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
CLAREMONT, Calif. – Only needing one win over their next four games, the Whittier College baseball team came from behind to pull off an 8-6 victory over Pomona-Pitzer Wednesday to earn a spot in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Post Season Tournament for the first time in the program's history.
With the win, Whittier knocks the Sagehens out of SCIAC Post Season contention and improves to 21-15, 17-8 SCIAC obtaining a top three seed in the tournament, while Pomona-Pitzer drops to 15-21, 11-14 SCIAC.
This wraps up a clean sweep for the Purple & Gold over the Sagehens this season as they went 4-0 earning 6-4, 15-9, 9-0, and 8-6 victories.
Whittier jumped out in front 2-0 in the top of the third. Willie Renard led things off with a single to left center and was moved over with an Armando Valdez sacrifice bunt. Corey Jensen then singled up the middle putting runners on the corners and was then followed by a Graham Pimm single to right field that brought in the first run.
Julian Barzilli was then intentionally walked in the ensuing at bat and Stephen Zavala made the Sagehens pay soon after singling to third base bringing in the second run.
Pomona would get one back in the bottom half of the inning to cut the deficit to one but would pull in front the next inning 5-3 getting after reliever Curtis Martin who was hit for four runs.
The score stayed the same until the seventh, when Barzilli and Zavala had RBI singles in the 5-6 hole to tie the score up at 5-5. Rosenbaum and Jake Bruml led off the bottom half with walks, but left fielder Ben Cerami came in relief and retired the next three batters he faced keeping the game deadlocked.
Barzilli led off the ninth inning with a solo homer to give Whittier a 6-5 lead, and with two outs, Cody Martinez added a solo shot himself and Cody Reilly tacked on an RBI double to make it 8-5. Rosenbaum gave the Sagehens some hope with a one-out solo homer in the bottom of the ninth, and Bruml lined a single to bring the tying run to the plate, but E.J. Lopez flew out to the warning track and Kenny Rabin lined out to right to end the game.
Cerami earns his fourth victory of the season going 3.0 innings giving up a run on two hits, while Coleman Lukas was tagged with the loss after going 2.2 innings giving up three runs on four hits, which included the two solo shots.
Martinez finished 2-4 on the day with two runs scored and a run batted in. He was joined by Barzilli who was also 2-4 with an RBI.
Whittier remains on the road this Saturday, April 26 as they travel to La Verne to take on the Leopards beginning at 3:00pm.
