Photo: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

WHITTIER, Calif. (Mar. 23, 2022) – The Whittier College baseball team walked it off on Tuesday afternoon, coming out on the winning end of an offensive war with Carleton College, 14-13. The back-and-forth affair saw the two teams exchange leads on seven different occasions before freshman shortstop Nate Sherman (Ventura, Calif. / Buena) and the Poets got the last laugh in the bottom of the ninth.

Sherman joined senior outfielder James Stirton (Cerritos, Calif. / Valley Christian) as one of two Poets to cross home plate on four different occasions, and it would be Stirton, the nine-hole hitter, who set things up for the freshman with some key baserunning after reaching base on a hit-by-pitch. Sherman, in an attempt to move Stirton to third with nobody out, legged out a bunt to the pitcher, but with the throw sailing behind the Knights' first baseman, Stirton was able to successfully make the rounds and cinch the Poets' second win of 2022.

Freshman Maximus Berber (Riverside, Calif. / Ramona) logged the first pitching start of his Whittier career, and impressed early with three strikouts to go with just one earned run through the game's first four innings. Berber also got a solid helping of run support after the Poets tagged the Knights for five runs in the third inning. Whittier took advantage of some control woes from the Carleton starter and utilized a sound baserunning approach to score the first three runs. The final two runs of the inning would come as a result of senior third baseman Jared Vuz (Blairstown, N.J. / North Warren Regional) smacking a double into center field that brought Berber, along with senior center fielder Dane Goodman (Ross, Calif. / Redwood) around the bases, giving the Purple & Gold an impressive 14-13 lead early.

The Knights would fire back in a big way in the fifth inning, tying the game before going ahead in the sixth. The Poets, however, were not without an answer, as they were once again able to capitalize on a couple Carleton miscues before another less timely mistake on a Goodman at-bat brought seniors River Danner (Seal Beach, Calif. / Los Alamitos) and Mike Hernandez (Stockton, Calif. / Edison) home, putting the Poets back on top, 10-8. Carleton would regain the lead in the next half frame before the Poets struck again with a hard-hit Danner double into center field scored Sherman along with junior middle infielder Wilson Okazaki (San Diego, Calif. / Point Loma) who came off the bench. Though Carleton would ultimately put the pressure back on the Poets in the bottom ninth, the Poets were able to do what they did all game and extract one more run from the Knights to give the fans in attendance something to celebrate. Sherman finished the game with a pair of hits and a pair of walksto go with the four-run game, while Stirton, who scored the game's winning run added two RBI's to go with his two-hit afternoon. Sophomore righty Zach Kennedy (Sacramento, Calif. / Capital) earned the first win of his career by coming in to pitch the ninth, and was set up beautifully by junior righty Matt Helguera (Montebello, Calif. / Schurr), who pitched 1.2 innings of one-hit baseball leading into the ninth.

Head Coach Mike Rizzo and the Poets will look to make it consecutive wins when they travel to California Lutheran University for the first of a three-game weekend series with a doubleheader ticketed for Whittier on Saturday.

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