GEORGETOWN, TX. (Mar. 11, 2024)- The Whittier College Poets earned their first victory of their Texas Spring Break trip, with a 4-1 battle against Southwestern University. The Poet pitching was phenomenal as the 3 arms totaled 13 strikeouts against the Pirates Monday night.
In the top of the first Whittier again had a chance to take an early lead, but some unfortunate luck did not fall in their favor. James Stirton (Cerritos, Calif., Valley Christian HS), Teige Barrett (San Diego, Calif., Mira Mesa HS), and Lew Rice (Walkerton, Va., IMG Academy) started things off by drawing three straight walks. Then with 1 out Ian Watanabe (Lodi, Calif., Lodi HS) laced a ball right at the shortstop, who was able to catch it and step on second for an inning-ending double-play.
On the opposite side of the field, head coach Mike Rizzo sent Braydon Williams (Los Angeles, Calif., Dorsey HS, Holy Names University) to the mound to open this game. The 6-7 beast balled out in his first start of the year, as he pitched a scoreless three innings with 3 strikeouts.
Whittier's bats began to wake up in the third inning. Stirton led the inning off with a double to right-center field and was later brought around to score thanks to a Maximus Berber (Riverside, Calif., Ramona HS) double. The Poets had a 1-0 lead at the end of the third inning.
In the fifth inning, the boys rallied again and were able to add onto their advantage. Rice began by hitting a hard single to the right side, and moved around to third when Berber came up next and hit a single. Rice then used his wheels to score on a wild pitch and Whittier had a 2-0 advantage through the fifth inning.
After Williams came off the mound, Marcos Armenta Jr. (Bellflower, Calif., Gahr HS). toed the rubber for the purple and gold. The junior was dominating tonight, pitching 4 innings giving up only 1 run, finishing with 7 strikeouts and earning the victory. Armenta's fierce competitiveness fired up the Poets bats, to score another run in the top half of the 7th. After coming in as a defensive replacement earlier in the game, Delvan Gomez (Artesia, Calif., Gahr HS, Cerritos College) hit a missile into the left-center gap and raced all the way around to third for his first triple of the season. On the next pitch Gomez scored on a wild pitch and the Poets now had a 3-1 lead.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, the Poets turned the ball over to their closer Barrett to shut this game down. Barrett has done it all for Whittier this season, and continued his excellent year by going 2 innings with 0 runs and 3 strikeouts.
Berber was not satisfied with his 2 hits in this matchup and extended the Whittier lead in the ninth inning, by hitting one over the left field fence that got out of the ballpark in a hurry. Barrett slammed the door on the Pirates in the bottom of the ninth, to earn his second save of the season and the Poets fifth win.
While the pitching staff were the stars of the game, the offense was also the best it has been all trip. The team combined for 9 hits and earned 9 freebies (walks and hit by pitches). Berber also needs to be recognized as the 2-way player was a triple away from the cycle. He finished with 3 total hits, 2 RBIs, and a run scored.
The team earned their first Texas victory and will look to keep it going, as they have another game tomorrow night. On the 12th of March Whittier and Nichols College (Mass.) will play a neutral site game at Southwestern University. The first pitch of this game will be at 6:00 PM Central time.
Follow and show support for your Whittier Poets on Twitter (@WCPoets), YouTube and Instagram (@PoetAthletics)!
