Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

WHITTIER, Calif. – Saturday was a day for milestones at Palmer Field as the Whittier College softball team celebrated senior day in impressive fashion winning the 2015 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) regular season title with a split of Pomona-Pitzer.

The title marks the second in the program's history dating back to 1987 and makes it the second time in Whittier college Athletic history that the Poets have won two SCIAC Championship Titles in the same year, with the first occurring back in 1981 (34 years ago) when football and basketball won titles in the same year.

Thanks to La Verne sweeping Claremont-M-S, Whittier holds the title outright as first year Head Coach Dee Dee Kingsbury earns her first SCIAC Championship Title.  

The Purple & Gold earned the title following a 4-0 victory in game one of the doubleheader behind the arm of sophomore Samantha Blum (San Jose, Calif.) who picked up her second perfect game within a weeks span improving to 20-5. 

Game 1 (Whittier – 4, Pomona-Pitzer – 0)

Behind the strong pitching performance by Blum, the Poets put on an offensive showcase blasting three solo homeruns, which included back to back jacks in the second from senior Mercedez Cundiff (Rowland, Calif.) and freshman Marialena Ahern (Fremont, Calif.).

Leading 2-0, the Poets added to their lead with a solo shot from Alyse Gutierrez (West Covina, Calif.) in the fourth and added insurance in the fifth when Ahern singled down the right field line that brought in Alexandra Flores (Santa Fe springs, Calif.).

Blum went 7.0 innings picking up her 14^th complete game.  Ahern was 2-3 with a run scored and two RBI's and Flores was 2-4 with a run scored.     

Game 2 (Pomona-Pitzer – 9, Whittier -2 )    
With the SCIAC Title in hand, the start in game two was handed to sophomore Rachel Alhanati (Lake Forest, Calif.) but fell unlucky in the third and fourth innings with PP bringing runs across and both coming on two outs.

The Poets were on the scoreboard first with Blum sending a double down the left field line that scored Gutierrez in the second. 

In the sixth the wheels fell off for Alhanati as she was tagged for seven runs on eight hits forcing her out of the game and giving the Sagehens a 9-1 lead and despite a solo blast from Ahern in the seventh it wouldn't be enough as Whittier would drop game two. 

Alhanati picked up the loss dropping to 5-10 giving up nine runs on 12 hits, while seven different players picked up a hit during the game. 

Whittier will now host the SCIAC Post Season Tournament this weekend on Friday-Saturday, May 1-2.  They will open Friday when they host No. 4 Cal Lutheran University beginning at 9:00am.   The game will be streamed with audio on wcpoets.com.