WHITTIER, CA. (APR. 24, 2026)- Whittier College baseball erased an early deficit and used a four-run sixth inning to surge ahead for good, defeating Occidental 8–6 on Friday afternoon at Mendez Stadium.
Occidental jumped in front with two runs in the first and added two more in the third to take a 4–0 lead, but the Poets answered in the bottom of the third. With 2-outs
Eric Logsdon (Apple Valley, Calif., Victor Valley College) singled to right field,
Matthew Mecate (Highland, Calif., CSU Dominguez Hills) followed with a base hit to center, and
Alex Jasso (South Gate, Calif., MACES) delivered a two-run single to left to cut the deficit in half.
Whittier continued to chip away in the fifth.
Rayden Miguel (Ewa Beach, Hawaii, Moanalua) singled up the middle, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from Logsdon, advanced to third on a groundout, and came home on another RBI single from Jasso to make it 4–3.
After Occidental scored in the top of the sixth, the Poets responded with their biggest inning of the afternoon.
Aidan Cardoza (Riverside, Calif., San Bernardino Valley College) walked,
Parker Eastwood-Lilles (Vancouver BC, Canada, St. George's Academy) was hit by a pitch, and
Collin O'Driscoll (Belmont, Calif., College of San Mateo) lined a two-run single to right field to tie the game.
Jackson Brummett (Huntington Beach, Calif., Huntington Beach) followed with a sacrifice bunt to move O'Driscoll into scoring position before Miguel singled up the middle to give Whittier the lead. Miguel then stole second and scored on Mecate's RBI double to left-center, putting the Poets ahead 7–5.
Occidental got one run back in the seventh, but Whittier answered again in the bottom half. Cardoza singled, Eastwood-Lilles moved him over with a sacrifice bunt, and
Thomas Iten (Stockton, Calif., Lincoln) came through with an RBI single to left to extend the lead to 8–6.
From there,
Andrew Berdelis (Huntington Beach, Calif., Huntington Beach) shut the door. The right-hander worked 6.1 innings in relief, allowing two runs while striking out four to earn the win. He held Occidental scoreless over the final two innings, including a clean ninth with back-to-back strikeouts to finish the game.
Jasso led the offense with three hits and three RBI, while Mecate added two hits, including a double, and drove in one. Miguel finished with two hits, two runs scored, an RBI, and a stolen base, and O'Driscoll added the key two-run single that tied the game in the sixth. Whittier finished with 11 hits in the win.
This was the final home game of the season for the Poets, as they will travel to Occidental tomorrow for games 2 and 3 of the series. The first game will be at 11:00 AM. These will be their final SCIAC contests of the year, as they will then wrap up their season with a 3-game set up in Oregon at Pacific University.
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