LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Beneath sunny skies on a chilly day in  Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference baseball action today the visiting Whittier College Poets out-dueled the Occidental College Tigers, sending the home squad home with a 5-2 loss at Anderson Field in the first of a three-game weekend series.  

Scoreless through three as each starting pitcher retired the side in order in the collective first six frames, it was the fourth inning before anyone reached base.

Ross Pomerantz showed up dealing, getting a strike out, ground ball to Riley Smith at third and pop up to shortstop Logan Allen in shallow center in the first. But, the Poets' starting hurler, Austin Straus, returned the favor, sitting the Tigers down in order, freezing a pair of batter with called third strikes.

It took just one pitch for the first out of the third inning as Pomerantz forced a weak ground ball to second. The second out of the frame came on a great catch by Kevin Ozaki who covered a lot of ground before meeting the wall near the left field foul pole. Pomerantz then sat down the final batter of the third looking.

Occidental struck first as Smith drew a leadoff walk, moving to second on a sacrifice bunt by catcher Dale Garrett. A wild pitch allowed the freshman to move to third and a speedy Allen layed down a beautiful push bunt to second base, beating out the throw by a step. Ozaki singled up the middle, off the pitchers glove, to put two men on with two out, threatening for more, but a hard hit ball down the left field line was stopped by a diving Dan Gleiberman, who tagged the bag for the final out of the third.

The tides turned in the top of the fourth as Reed Tuttle poked a looping single into center and moved up to second on a wild pitch, marking the first WC player to reach scoring position. Consecutive walks loaded the bases and a pop fly down the right field line looked as if though the Tigers would get out of the jam, but an error allowed the Poets to knot things up at 1-1. The Purple and Gold then got a sacrifice fly off the bat of Cory Goodchild, scoring Alex Gast, as WC took a 2-1 lead.

Occidental responded by reaching on an error, with a walk and a single, but all three outs in the frame were recorded on the bases, two runners were caught stealing and the other was thrown out at the plate.

Again in the fifth, a dropped ball, this time in foul ground, would have ended the inning, but left the Poets with life, extending the inning. A pair of singles would do no harm as a fielders choice, 6-4 play, ended the inning with no one crossing the plate for Whittier.

WC would add to their tally in the top of the sixth as Glieberman led off with a no-doubt-about it homerun to left center into the batting cage nets beside the clubhouse.  

Looking as if though the Tigers would dug their claws in during the bottom of the sixth. With a leadoff single from Allen and a fielding error on a sacrifice bunt attempt by Ozaki put men on first and second with no one out. A strike-him-out-throw-him-out double play ended the inning for the Black and Orange.

Whittier went on to add another run to the board in the top of the seventh, connecting for a pair of two-out hits, the second an RBI off the bat of Reed Tuttle, scoring Andrew Vallejo who started the rally and stole second. Pomerantz forced a ground ball for the final out.

After Alec Strain drew a leadoff walk in the seventh, Straus turned in his pitching glove for his first baseman mitt, as Mike Rueda took the hill. The reliever sat the Tigers down in order, stranding a runner 90 feet from scoring.

The Poets pushed their lead to 5-1 in the eighth when a wild pitch on a strike out went awry to start things off. A throwing error on a fielders choice put two men on with one down forcing Pomerantz off the mound. Freshman Mitch Margolis came into the game, and when the Whittier runners took off on the pitch, another errant throw on a stolen base allowed the fifth and final run to cross the plate. Margolis got the final two batters on a pair of strike outs, swinging and looking, respectively.

An uneventful eighth put the ball back in the hand of Margolis, who retired the side in order in the top of the ninth to complete his day facing the minimum amount of batters he could have faced.

Oxy got a late spark in the bottom of the ninth with a leadoff single from designated hitter Stephen Hilliard. Jacob Lee went in to pinch run and swiped second. A wild pitch moved him up to third and he came in to score the second and final Tigers' run of the afternoon on a sacrifice fly from the bat of first baseman Pedro Aldape. The game ended on a double play turned by the Poets.

Straus (1-2) picked up his first win of the spring for WC while Rueda notched his first save. Each allowed one Oxy run with five and three strike outs, respectively.

Pomerantz (3-7), although he allowed just two earned runs, was tagged with the loss after striking out seven in 7.1 innings.

Each team had six hits and three errors in the contest. Tuttle was 3-for-4 and Vallejo was 2-for-5 for the Poets while Allen recorded the only multi-hit game of the day for Oxy going 2-for-4.

Occidental (9-20, 5-13 SCIAC) will travel to Memorial Field to complete the three-game series with Whittier (14-16, 6-13) tomorrow with first pitch scheduled for 11:00 a.m. Game one of the double dip will be available via the audio stream of Occidental's Craig Dunkin at www.oxybroadcast.com.

Article by Tracy Maple, Sports Information Director