Whittier's season ends with two losses at No. 16 CLU

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - The Whittier College baseball team had its season end on Saturday, May 2, at Ullman Stadium. The Poets lost twice to No. 16 California Lutheran in the final doubleheader of the year, 14-3 and 16-10.

Whittier (12-28, 6-15 SCIAC) had difficulties keeping the Kingsmen's offense at bay. Cal Lu (31-9, 17-4 SCIAC) totaled 38 hits in the twin bill and scored 30 runs. The Poets used five pitchers throughout the day and allowed a combined 29 earned runs.

The Poets were held to just four hits in Game 1 as Jay Armenta and John Fugazi each had one hit and Andrew Vallejo had two hits. WC scored its first run of the first game in the sixth inning on an RBI sacrifice fly by Anthony Cappelletti.

Armenta added the second run for the Poets in the eighth inning on a solo homerun. Tyler Bogart gave the purple and gold its final run of the game in last inning. He reached on an error and scored one batter later on an error.

Whittier's bats woke up in the second game as they totaled 10 hits and scored 10 runs but it wasn't enough to keep up with Cal Lu.  Michael Benavente and Cappelletti each hit a homerun and Lorenzo Lopez matched Benavente and Cappelletti with a two hit game.

Lopez was also tied for a team-high three RBIs which he got on a two-out, three RBI double off the centerfield fence.

The first six batters in the lineup for Whittier in Game 2 had nine of the team's 10 hits.

The Poets end the season in seventh place in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.