Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
WHITTIER, Calif. – The Whittier College baseball team wrapped up their round robin play Sunday against Occidental College and Claremont-M-S but a combined six errors would prove costly in 7-0 and 7-4 losses on Senior Day.
With the two losses the Poets drop to 21-18, 17-11 SCIAC but still managed to hold onto the No. 3 seed in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Post Season Tournament, which will take place this weekend, May 2-4 in a doubleheader elimination format.
Game 1 (Occidental; L, 7-0)
Occidental received a complete game shutout from Mitch Margolis who had a perfect game through four innings. By the time Whittier achieved their first hit, Occidental had already jumped out to a 5-0 lead after a pair of runs in the second and three in the fourth.
Whittier had an opportunity to get some runs across with runners on second and third and one out in the fifth but a pop out by Armando Valdez and a strikeout from Corey Jensen would end the Poet threat.
The Poets earned eight hits on the morning with Stephen Zavala and Cody Martinez each going 2-4.
Nick Garcia got the start and was charged with his sixth loss of the season going 7.0 innings giving up an earned run on eight hits.
Game 2 (Claremont-M-S; L, 7-4)
Jensen scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the first to even the game at one. The Stags would add two more in the fourth before the Purple & Gold responded with two of their own in the bottom half of the inning but a three spot put up in the fifth for CMS would prove deadly in the end as they would hold on for the 7-4 victory.
Whittier put together a nice rally in the fourth when they put up two runs. Martinez led off the inning getting hit by a pitch and then advanced on a balk. Willie Renard then singled through the left side putting runners on the corners before Valdez brought in the first run with a bunt to the right side.
Jensen then reached on a fielders choice to keep the inning alive plating the second run of the frame but a groundout by Graham Pimm and a fly out from Andrew Ponce would end the threat.
The Poets would manage to bring one more run across for the game behind a triple from Cerami that brought in Zavala in the sixth but the Stags answered with a Scott Witte solo shot in the next inning that secured the victory.
Kesselman earned the victory going a complete game giving up four runs on six hits to go with five strikeouts. Curtis Martin was charged with the loss and drops to 6-4 going 6.0 Innings giving up five runs on nine hits.
Six players recorded hits on the afternoon for the Poets led by Jensen who was 1-5 with a run scored and a run batted in.
Whittier opens up the SCIAC Post Season Tournament this Friday, May 2 as they travel to Chapman University to take on the Panthers with game time to be announced.
