Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
LA VERNE, Calif. – The Whittier College Softball team remains alive in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Post Season Tournament after sophomore Marialena Ahern Fremont, Calif.) hit a walk off grand slam in the bottom half of the seventh that knocked out the No. 3 seed The University of Redlands.
Game 1 (La Verne; L, 8-0)
Whittier entered the SCIAC Post Season Tournament as the No. 4 seed looking to defend their 2015 Title but the Leopards of the University of La Verne got the best of them in game one winning in five innings 8-0.
The No. 1 seed put up three in the third and five in the fifth, while Katherine Kibbe limited the Poet bats to just one hit. That one hit came from Ally Fonseca (Pico Rivera, Calif.) who broke up the no hitter in the top half of the fifth.
Samantha Blum (San Jose, Calif.) was tagged with the loss going 4.0 innings giving up eight runs on nine hits.
Game 2 (Redlands; W, 7-5)
In an elimination game, the Poets were pushed up against the wall trailing 5-3 in the bottom half of the seventh but managed to fight to get the bases loaded all coming on two outs, while Ahern capped it all off with her SCIAC leading 14th homerun of the season, walk off style that kept the Poet playoff run alive.
Redlands led 1-0 capitalizing on a throwing error by the pitcher in the top half of the first until the fourth when the Poets tied things up when Ahern reached on an error by the second baseman allowing Kacey Whitney (Cypress, Calif.) to come around from second.
Redlands went on top again in the sixth but that lead was short-lived as Whittier would get another two themselves off the bat of Kaitlyn Garza (Chino, Calif.) who doubled to left center scoring Whitney and Fonseca.
The Bulldogs would come back with three runs on three hits in the seventh to regain the lead and that's when the fireworks occurred.
After fly-outs from Megan Troutman (Covina, Calif.) and Madison Crimi-Demichele (San Jose, Calif.) the Poets were down to their final out. Blum then reached on a throwing error by the shortstop and that was immediately followed by a fielding error by the third baseman that put Fonseca on. Whitney then singled to the shortstop that loaded the bases and Garza would bring in one after getting hit by a pitch.
Ahern then stepped in and on a 2-2 count she hammered the walk off grand slam to the opposite field that propelled the Poets to the come from behind victory.
Blum threw a complete game earning her 14th win of the season giving up five runs (two earned) on 11 hits. Whitney finished with a 2-3 effort scoring twice. Garza was 1-2 with a run scored, while driving in three and Ahern was 1-4 scoring once and driving in four.
Whittier is back in action as they look to avenge yesterday's loss to the Leos as they take on La Verne in an elimination game this morning at 11:00am.
