The Whitman Blues continued on one of their hottest starts in recent memory as they improved to 5-0 with a double header sweep of the Occidental Tigers Saturday in Los Angeles.
Game 1
The game got kicked off by
Mateus Conaway, who drew a walk. After
Ben Parker struck out,
Garrett Runyan was hit by a pitch, and
Teague Conder made Occidental pay early, driving an RBI single through the left side to make it 1-0 early. Runyon advanced to third on the play. Runyan's hustle proved important as
Jack Bickerton followed Conder's lead and singled through the left side himself, giving the Blues an early 2-0 lead prior to taking the field.
Occidental would bounce back against Whitman starter
Julien Hernandez in the bottom of the first, as the leadoff man Martineau reached via error, and Tom Stoodt would double to right center, scoring Martineau all the way from the first to make it 2-1.
After a scoreless second, the Blues bats went back to work, and for the second straight day,
Ben Parker would leave the yard with a home run, his fourth of the season, and staked the Blues to a 3-1 lead. The next hitter, Runyan, would follow suit, sending his own solo shot over the center field wall to give Whitman the 4-1 lead.
The Tigers would respond with a run of their own in the bottom of the third inning as Tom Stoodt, who went 3- 5 in the game, doubled to left center to kick off the inning off Hernandez. After Ryan Cacatian struck out, Stoodt stole third base, and would come home on an RBI single from Jeffrey Cambra, cutting the deficit to two.
Whitman answered with an additional run in the fourth inning, as
AJ Romero's one out single was followed by an RBI triple to right center by
Nate Korahais, and Whitman would extend its lead to 5-2.
The score would remain there until the top of the seventh inning. Ben reached with a one out infield single, and Runyan followed by reaching base courtesy of an error by Occidental pitcher Matthew Uytioco. The error would prove to be costly as the righty
Teague Conder, facing a lefty on the mound, got ahead 1-O, and took advantage of a hanging curveball, as Conder crushed it down the left field line for a three run shot to extend the Whitman lead to 8-2. Two batters later,
Jack Bickerton took a belt high fastball and smashed it over the left field wall for a 9-2 lead.
Occidental would not go away quietly. In the bottom of the seventh, Cacatian walked, Ari Solomon was hit by a pitch, and then Cambra singled up the middle off of
Benjamin Seashore-Hobson to make it 9-4. Then in the ninth, a pair of errors, followed by a single loaded the bases with one out when S. Llamas hit a two-run single to center field, and that was followed by a two-run double by Nolan Upchurch to make it 9 - 7. But Martineau flew out to Parker in center field to give the Blues the win.
Julien Hernandez earned the win on the mound for Whitman in the game, going six innings, allowing two runs (one earned) while striking out seven in picking up his second win of the year.
Game 2
Occidental led off the bottom of the first with a lead off triple, but failed to score against Whitman starter
Wyatt Adams, who bounced back by striking out T. Stoudt before inducing a lineout and a fly out to Parker to end the inning.
After Adams effort on the hill in the first, the Blues offense responded in a big way, scoring seven runs on seven hits in the inning. The inning started
Beck Maguire and
Kepa Supnet before
Halen Otte delivered a 2-RBI single to left-center field to make it 2-0. After an error allowed another run to score,
Ben Parker singled down the left field line to extend the lead to five. RBI singles from Bickerton and Maguire, at the plate for the second time, would make it 7-0.
It was fortunate for Whitman they did so, as the Tigers would again refuse to quit. Occidental scored two runs in the second and plated two more in the third to make it 7-4. In the fifth, the Tigers loaded the bases with two outs before Adams struck out the final hitter he faced in the game to end the inning. The Tigers would score another run in the fifth off of
Rylan Burigsay as the Blues watched their lead shrink down to 7-5.
Whitman, after being held off the score board for three innings, delivered again in the top of the seventh, highlighted by Conder and Bickerton, who each had RBI singles with two outs to stake the Blues to a 9-5 lead.
That would be enough for Burigsay, who threw five strong innings in qualifying for the win. He would finish with one unearned run on four hits over five innings, adding a walk and a strikeout in picking up the victory. For the day,
Teague Conder had 6 RBI,
Jack Bickerton continued to swing a hot bat with five hits and five RBI, and Conder, Parker, Runyan, and Bickerton all had home runs for the Blues.
Whitman and Occidental will finish their three-game series tomorrow, first pitch scheduled at 11 a.m.
