The University of Redlands baseball team traveled to Whittier College to face the Poets for the final two of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) three-game series. The Bulldogs muscled 21 hits over the two games to down the Whittier Poets by final scores of 4-2 and 7-3.
Redlands got things rolling in the top of the first with runners on first and third and junior catcher Rainier Aguilar (san Bernardino, CA) up to bat. He reached base by an unsuccessful fielder's choice, so all runners were safe, allowing junior third basemen Brendan Gardiner (Mission Viejo, CA) to score.
Senior hurler Michael Collins (Upland, CA) climbed the hill for the Bulldogs in game one. With a slight lead in the first, Collins made quick work of the Poets by going three-up, three-down, to put the Bulldogs on offense once again.
Junior right-fielder Jordan Babbitt (Highland, CA) stretched the Maroon and Gray's lead when he went yard to lead off the top of the second. With one out, junior short stop Will Hall (Seattle, WA) sent a single to right center, before eventually moving to third two batters later. This set up Gardiner's RBI-single down the right-field line to score Hall for Redlands' 3-0 advantage.
Collins continued to dominate the Whittier batting order by sitting three-straight Poets yet again. However, the home team gave Collins a little trouble in the fourth and the fifth by plating one run in each inning to make it a one-run game through five innings.
Junior pitcher Adam Stead (Rialto, CA) entered the game in the bottom of the sixth and struck out five batters in 2.2 innings of work to keep Whittier at bay.
But the Poets refused to go away and made things interesting in the bottom of the eighth with the tying run on third. Senior pitcher John White (Burbank, CA) took over the pitching duties with two outs with the bases loaded. During the next at-bat, Aguilar made a great, heads-up play at the plate to flick the ball back to White to tag the runner coming home for the third out with no damage done.
After the close call, Redlands looked to Gardiner to further distance themselves from Whittier. He did just that as he hit a lead-off bomb for the 4-2 Bulldog advantage.
White secured the first two outs in the bottom of the ninth by way of strikeout and then left it up to senior outfielder Mitch Samson (Orangevale, CA) to make a routine catch in left for the third and final out.
Senior John Keane (Clayton, CA) was handed the pearl for the second game, with senior Kyle Wallau (San Mateo, CA) behind the dish. He cruised through the first inning by fanning two of the three Whittier batters.
Senior center-fielder Christian Conci (San Mateo, CA) got things rolling for Redlands, as he knocked an infield single toward third base. Junior right-fielder Kyle Kabeary (Indio, CA) sent a double deep to right-center to move Conci to third. Freshman first basemen Andrew Renteria (Van Nuys, CA) reached first on a costly Whittier error, during which Conci snuck in for the score.
The top of the third proved to be even more lucrative for the Bulldogs, as they linked together two singles to lead off the inning. With one out, Aguilar dinged a single to left field for an RBI. The next batter was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Kabeary. Kabeary remained calm and lined a single to center field to score Samson and Aguilar while advancing Conci to third. Renteria grounded out to the short stop, who opted to throw it to first, allowing Conci to score for a nice 5-0 cushion heading into the bottom of the third.
Whittier attempted to even things up in the next inning by plating three runs.
Fast-forward to the top of the eighth, the Maroon and Gray capitalized on a Whittier miscue to score two more runs.
After taking over pitching duties in the bottom of the seventh, junior Noah Jones (San Bernardino, CA) closed out the game by striking out two in three innings of work.
Redlands (6-7, 3-3 SCIAC) looks to stay in the win column when it travels to Chapman University for a non-conference game under the lights on Tuesday, February 28, at 7 p.m.
