Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
LA VERNE, Calif. – The Whittier College baseball team earned their second straight victory within the round robin play Sunday as they earned a 10-9 victory over the University of La Verne in extra innings.
A wild pitch plated Ben Cerami (Berkeley, Calif.) the eventual game winning run in the tenth and Nick Garcia (Anaheim, Calif.) threw the final three innings to pick up his fourth win of the season as Whittier improved to 21-17, 18-10 SCIAC.
La Verne got two runs quickly in the first with back to back triples from Andrew Douglas and Jakob Thomas. But Whittier responded in the second with a three spot sparked by a triple from Andrew Lamar (Alta Loma, Calif.) that brought in Chris Sekiguchi (Aiea, HI) and Cody Martinez (Whittier, Calif.) and a single from Dylan DeBrouwer (Manteca, Calif.).
The Leos managed another three runs over the next two innings but the Purple & Gold would put together four runs on two hits and capitalized on two ULV errors that put them in front 7-5. They would extend their lead to 9-5 the very next inning from Graham Pimm (Clayton, Calif.) who singled up the middle that brought around Jonathan Whipple (Sandy, UT) and Lamar but La Verne would rally to tie things up in the ninth on a Tyler Watkins single up the middle.
In extras, Cerami reached on a throwing error by the shortstop and moved up to second on the overthrow. Matthew Macey (Placentia, Calif.) sacrificed him over and he later came in on the wild pitch that propelled the Poets to their second straight road victory.
Whipple finished 3-5 with two runs scored. Lamar was 2-4 with two runs batted in and two RBI's and Martinez was 2-4 with a run scored and a run batted in.
Garcia threw the final three innings giving up one unearned run on four hits striking out two.
Whittier wraps up their season with a home game on Tuesday, April 28 when they host Occidental beginning at 3:00pm.
