Photo: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

WHITTIER, Calif. (Feb. 28, 2022) – The Whittier College baseball team brought the bats to Saturday's home doubleheader with Occidental College, with freshman Maximus Berber (Riverside, Calif. / Ramona) leading the offense with three home runs in the early game.

Game 1: Occidental 15, Whittier 11

One day after taking a one-run lead into the ninth inning against the Tigers, the Poets sought to make some noise at the plate in their first SCIAC doubleheader of the season and certainly made their presence felt. Berber took two different pitchers deep a total of three time in Saturday's first game, accounting for six of his team's 11 runs. He was not, however, the only Poet heat up on Saturday, as senior designated hitter Mike Hernandez (Stockton, Calif. / Edison) remained locked in at the dish with three hits, one of which went for three bases. The outing moved the senior's batting average to .500 on the year, leading all Poets to go with a .769 slugging percentage. Whittier's hot hitting staked them to a 7-3 lead through the first three innings and its 6-0 lead through two marked the team's largest lead of the season to date. 

The Poets, would however get a taste of their own medicine in the middle innings, but not before sophomore righty Zach Kennedy (Sacramento, Calif. / Capital) dazzled the fans with one of the strongest stretches of pitching the Poets have seen in 2022. The sophomore struck out five of the first six batters he faced, energizing Whittier's bats by throwing the Tigers' completely off balance. Kennedy would go on to strike out seven Tigers over five and a third innings before giving way to six different Whittier pitchers. Of the six, lefty Riley Schicker (Camarillo, Calif. / Santa Clara) and righty Elijah Paner (Los Angeles, Calif. / Eagle Rock) would throw scoreless innings, but the Occidental offense would come on strong in the end, outlasting Whittier in a game not short on offense. The 11 runs mark the most the Poets have scored in any game this season.

Game 2: Occidental 10, Whittier 5

For a team that hung 11 runs on its opponent earlier in the day, the Poets did not look any worse for wear, scoring four runs over the game's first three innings, providing starting pitcher Arturo Escandon (Hacienda Heights, Calif. / Bishop Amat) a substantial amount of run support in the early-going. However, with the Tigers' bats once again figuring out Whittier by the middle innings, substantial would become a relative term. That did not stop the Poets from stinging the Tigers with nine hits in seven innings, as the game would eventually be halted due to darkness. Eight of those hits came from four different players, and while Berber added to his impressive first game with a 2-for-4 Game 2, freshman middle infielder Nate Sherman (Ventura, Calif. / Buena) would impress as much as anybody in the late game, scoring a pair of hits himself, including a double he smoked into left center in the sixth-inning. By game's end, the Poets had effectively run out of gas, but got plenty of bang for their buck on Saturday with 29 hits over the three-game series, a substantial improvement from the games coming in.

Head Coach Mike Rizzo and the Poets will have some opportunities coming up to earn their first SCIAC win, but in the interim will host Bridgewater College on Wednesday, Mar. 2 at 2:30 p.m.

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