Poets split doubleheader, start season 1-2

Issue 17, Joshua De Bets, men's baseball poets, Sports - By Joshua De Bets on Thursday, February 9, 2012 - 03:42

With the completion of the Super Bowl marks the beginning to yet another baseball season. The Whittier College Men’s Baseball team looks to rebound from a 16-23, 8-20 SCIAC, 2011 season in which they finished seventh and failed to make the playoffs. Their dreams of playing in the SCIAC tournament started on Friday, Feb. 3 against Chapman in which they played much like they did last season, losing 10-4.

The high-powered Chapman offense scored 5 runs in the third inning and never looked back as their relief pitchers junior Brian Rauh and senior Ben Levitt threw nine innings of solid baseball and limited the Poet bats to only two extra base hits.
The Poets looked to bounce back the opening day loss to the Panthers on Saturday, Feb. 4 in a doubleheader against Chapman.

In game one of the doubleheader the Poets fell just short of a ninth inning comeback, losing 7-6. In the bottom of the ninth with one out and nobody on base, junior utility player Alex Mitchell worked the walk and then on the very next pitch senior second baseman Cory Goodchild smoked a fastball over the left field wall bringing the Poets within 1.
It was Goodchild’s second homerun of the day as his first cleared the right field wall shattering a 1997 Honda’s windshield in the parking lot. The senior second baseman had three RBIs and a walk in the game.

The Poets then got a two-out double and needed a base hit to tie the game but first-year outfielder Cody Martinez struck out on a 1-2 fastball, ending the game and the Poets’ hopes of a comeback victory.

Defense proved to be the difference in this one as the Purple and Gold had three errors that resulted in 3 Chapman runs.

Junior starting pitcher Austin Straus struggled during his first outing of the season only going 4.1 innings, allowing 4 runs, all earned, on eight hits and three walks.
Junior relief pitcher Donny Young suffered most from the Poets’ poor defense allowing 3 runs, 1 earned, and a late homerun to the Chapman first-year first baseman Jake Levin that ended up being the difference in the game.

Game two of the doubleheader began poorly for the Poets as well as the Chapman junior starting pitcher Christian Maietta was wild and threw no strikes in the bottom of the first but still recorded two-outs via the pickoff.

After the first-inning base running miscues the Poets poured it on the Panthers, winning 12-4 in eight innings. Whittier had four extra base hits in the game including a sophomore first baseman Willie Renard bomb that went over 400 feet.
Maietta only went two and two-third innings and allowed 6 runs on six hits. He picked up the loss, the first loss for the Panthers on the young season.

Poets’ junior starting pitcher Michael Olmstead was a bit wild with five walks in five innings of work, but only allowed 1 run and notched his first win on the season.
The Poets look to build upon this victory on Friday, Feb. 10 as they take on Pomona-Pitzer at home at 2:30 p.m. The Purple and Gold went 0-4 against the Sagehens last season allowing double digit runs in all four of the games.