Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

WHITTIER, Calif. – Senior catcher Stephen Zavala (Whittier, Calif.) stole home in the bottom half of the 8^th with the go ahead run that propelled the Whittier College baseball team to the 4-3 victory over Bates College Friday afternoon.

This marks the second straight victory for the Purple & Gold as they move to 2-6, 1-2 SCIAC, while Bates drops to 2-2.

Whittier got another good start out of Nick Garcia (Whittier, Calif.) who went 7.1 innings strong giving up three runs on five hits in the no decision.  Whittier put a run across in the 2^nd thanks to a Dylan DeBrouwer (Manteca, Calif.) double to right center that plated Ben Cerami (Berkeley, Calif.) and then added another two in the 5^th sparked by a double by Jonathan Whipple (Sandy, UT) to dead center.

Bates however put together a comeback starting in the 7^th getting two back thanks to a two run shot from Sam Berry, who would later bring in the game tying run in the next inning with a single through the right side. 

But in the 8^th the Poets would strike with Zavala earning a leadoff walk.  He then stole second and moved to third on a fly ball.  Then with two outs and an 0-2 count on Charlie Mayfield (Placentia, Calif.), he stole home with Connor Colombo going from the windup and managed to get under the catchers tag putting the Poets back on top.

Then in the 9^th Matthew Macey (Oceanside, Calif.) would shut the door despite giving up a single picking up his second save on the season.  Cerami earned his first win of the year coming in for Garcia throwing 0.2 innings giving up just two hits.  He also finished 2-4 with a run scored, while Macey was 2-3 with a run scored.         

The Poets and Bobcats wrap up their three game series tomorrow, Saturday, February 21 at Memorial Field with game times slated for 11:00am and 2:30pm.