Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – The Whittier College baseball team earned a hard fought 5-4 victory over the University of La Verne to open up the second day of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Post Season Tournament. But they would be eliminated following the afternoon's match-up against Chapman University falling 14-4.
Game 1 (Whittier – 5, La Verne – 4)
In the 8:30 a.m. game, No. 3 Whittier was the designated home team while No. 4 La Verne was the visitor. The majority of the game was an even battle with each team scoring once through the first six innings. LV tacked on one in the seventh and pushed across a pair in the eighth for a 4-1 advantage going into the final half inning, which set the stage for late dramatics from WC.
In a tied game, with two men on, two outs and a 2-2 count on senior Poets third baseman Julian Barzilli, the three-hole hitter ripped a single to left field that drove in Stephen Zavala, sending the Poets into an afternoon match-up while the La Verne season came to a close.
The comeback effort in the bottom of the ninth was sparked by a walk from Jonathan Whipple and a pinch-hit RBI single from Willie Renard that ended LV starting pitcher Kevin Knight's day after 8.1 innings. The Leos hurler struck out five and allowed just one earned run, but finished with a no decision. Phil Schick came in from the bullpen and was tagged for two hits, though the loss was handed to Brett Early (3-5) after being responsible for both the tying and winning runs.
Through two and a half innings the teams were scoreless with two hits apiece, but in the bottom of the third WC put up a crooked number and in the top of the fourth LV responded as the leadoff man for each team reached and scored.
WC used a single from Graham Pimm and a sacrifice bunt before a LV error allowed Pimm to advance to third. Barzilli lifted a sacrifice fly to centerfield to plate the first run of the day. LV catcher Joe Winterburn and shortstop Woody Reyes joined forces to throw out a would-be-base-stealer to end the inning.
For La Verne in the top of the fourth Pedro Espinoza drew a walk, advancing to second on a sac bunt and moving up 90 more feet on a single to the right side off the bat of George Holland. A fielder's choice, that WC shortstop Armando Valdez made a diving stop and got the ball quickly over to Pimm at second base for the force out, scored Espinoza with the equalizing run. The final out of the stanza came on a unique 1-4-3 putout that ricocheted off first baseman Cody Martinez to Pimm who flipped to Curtis Martin covering.
Another great defensive play in the bottom of the fourth came on a single up the middle from Whipple as Reyes dove behind the bag to hold runners at first and second, which ultimately saved a run as the next out was by way of a deep fly ball that would have scored the second WC run of the game. Instead, Knight worked out of the inning with a pop-up to short. Again in the fifth, Pimm spearheaded a 4-6-3 double play for the first two outs of the inning and Martin got a fly ball for the third.
While Knight cruised, Martin ran into trouble in the seventh. A single from Reyes and an RBI double down the left field line from Nolan Henley put the Leopards on top and ran Martin (6-4) from the game after 6.1 innings despite striking out five and scattering just six hits for the Poets. Ben Cerami traded his outfield mitt for a pitching glove and came on to record the final two outs via a pop-up and a fly ball.
In the eighth he was not so lucky, as the Leopards used a two-out rally to score a pair on back-to-back RBI hits from Holland and Josh Surdo with Holland collecting the third LV extra base hit of the game with a double. Cerami (6-0) would, however, go on to earn the win.
The La Verne (19-22) season came to a close on a day when the Leopards collected 10 total hits with two apiece from Henley, Holland and Mark Jebbia. Four different players scored and Surdo finished with two RBIs.
Whittier was led in the opening game by Barzilli, Pimm and Corey Jensen as each recorded two hits. Five different Poets players scored and Barzilli was responsible for driving in a pair. Whipple earned the only two walks of the day for WC.
Game 2 (Chapman – 14, Whittier – 4)
The final match-up of the day saw Chapman explode for 14 runs on 20 hits. The Panthers plated at least one run in each of the first five innings, with a four-spot in the third. CU seized control from the get-go and never looked back, though WC made some noise in the bottom of the sixth and finished with 10 hits as a team.
For the Panthers, Carabajal added three more base knocks for a seven-hit day. Connor Battaglia, Tyler Cook and Greg Dillon also each got three hits in the game and combined for five runs and nine RBIs, with Battaglia pacing the group by driving in four. Saatzer alone scored four times for CU.
Defensively, Basen was part of two plays at the plate. The first was a 1-2-3 double play to end the second inning and the other was a tag out at the plate on a laser from Carabajal in left field for the third out of the seventh.
Whittier (22-20, 17-11 SCIAC) finishes at .500 overall. Zavala used a double down the left field line in the sixth inning to clear the bases for three of the four Poets runs. Cerami, Whipple and Renard tallied two hits apiece in the loss.
Justin Cheatham (3-3) was tagged with the loss lasting just 2.0 Innings giving up three runs on five hits.
Whittier completes their 2014 season 22-20, 17-11 SCIAC earning a spot in the SCIAC Post Season Tournament for the first time in the program's history.
