Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
ORANGE, Calif. - Behind an outstanding pitching effort from sophomore LHP Nick Garcia the Whittier College baseball team was unable to upset the No. 2 seeded Panthers of Chapman University falling 2-1 in the first round of the SCIAC Postseason Tournament on Friday afternoon at Hart Park.
The No. 3-seeded Poets will now travel to Thousand Oaks, Calif. to face No. 4 La Verne in an elimination game tomorrow morning at 8:30am.
Osaki scattered eight hits in 7 1/3 innings and fanned 11 batters with no walks to improve to 5-0 this season for Chapman (29-11). Braden Riddle recorded a perfect five-out save, including four strikeouts to close the game for his fourth save of the season. Riddle inherited the tying and go-ahead runners on base in the eighth inning before getting back-to-back strikeouts to silence the threat. The two Chapman pitchers combined to strike out 15 Whittier batters on Friday.
Garcia (5-7) made it a legitimate pitcher's duel, limiting the Panthers to just six hits in a complete-game effort. He allowed just one earned run over eight innings, striking out a pair.
Chapman snapped a scoreless tie in the 5th after Tyler Cook and Greg Dillon led off the inning with back-to-back singles. Cook eventually scored on a double play ball to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead.
The Poets responded in the top of the sixth with three straight hits off of Osaki, including a double by junior catcher Stephen Zavala and an RBI single from sophomore Jonathan Whipple. Zavala and Whipple finished with five of the Poets' eight hits.
Connor Battaglia knocked in the eventual game-winning run in the bottom of the sixth inning with the score tied at 1-1. With runners on second and third and two outs, Battaglia flared a ball into right field that scored Tim Alhanati with an unearned run and forced a play at the plate that saw Mark Saatzer thrown out for the final out of the inning.
Zavala led the offensive unit finishing 3-4, while Whipple was 2-4 with a run batted in.
The Championships now shift to Thousand Oaks, Calif. and Cal Lutheran University, which will host the remaining games of the double-elimination tournament. Should Whittier defeat La Verne Saturday morning, they will advance to the 2:30pm game against the Loser of Cal Lutheran and Chapman.
