WHITTIER, Calif. (Feb. 14, 2025) – Senior second baseman
Kelly Nutter (Carlsbad, Calif. / La Costa Canyon Cal State San Marcos | Palomar College) and freshman first baseman
Mia Gonzales (Pico Rivera, Calif. Schurr) of the Whittier College softball team swatted key home runs and delivered plenty of counting numbers to help the Poets split with a tough Trinity University team in Saturday's softball season opener.
Game 1: Whittier 14, Trinity 9
Though the talented freshman first baseman Gonzales would steal the show with a mammoth home run to deep center field in the sixth inning, sophomore catcher
Mariah Rodriguez, last year's Whittier College Freshman Athlete of the Year dominated Trinity's pitching with three hits to go with six RBIs. She got on base four different times counting one of seven team walks for the Poets, and found herself at the center of the offense in a key sixth inning where the Purple & Gold scored five runs in the midst of a 9-9 ball game. The catcher smacked a double into left field that scored outfield teammates
Daniella Contreras and Leana Sanchez.
With Rodriguez already aboard, Gonzales followed her with a towering ball into dead center field for the first home run of her intercollegiate athletic career. She finished the game with three RBIs, also scoring Contreras in the first inning of the first game against the Tigers.
Senior lefty
Bella Peinado (Ventura, Calif. Ventura) starred in relief of starter, junior transfer Mariah Zapata. Entering the game in the fourth inning, Peinado threw four shutout innings and struck out two Tigers, maximizing her command of the strike zone while limiting the visiting offense to just five hits. Whittier put up a collective 14 hits in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader, and though the Tigers hung with the Poets early, the cumulative offense proved to be too much to resist.
Game 2: Trinity 14, Whittier 7
Nutter, who went 2-for-4 in the series opener, continued her productive ways in Game 2, knocking in two runs out of the leadoff spot. She too smacked a home run into dead-away center field in the fifth inning, which at the time gave the Poets a 6-5 lead. Freshman outfielder
Tiaira Richardson (Vista, Calif. Rancho Buena Vista) also flashed the offense in the second game by going two-for-three at the dish and scoring two runs.
Whittier would use four different pitchers in the second game of Saturday's doubleheader, having to contend with a Tigers team that extended innings with shrewd, opportunistic baserunning and broke through with a big seventh inning to top the Poets in the 11th hour. Sophomore righty
Maya Torres (Lakewood, Calif. Artesia) entered the game in relief, striking out three batters in her 2026 debut. On the plus side, freshman first baseman Gonzales doubled twice, raising her slugging percentage to 1.286 and her OPS to 1.953 on the weekend.
Head Coach Terry Schweikert and the Poets will return to action on Saturday, Feb. 28 when they host Pacific University for an 11 a.m. doubleheader.
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