WHITTIER, Calif. – For the second time this season, the Whittier baseball team took down a Top 5 team in the country. The Poets scored in the bottom of the 10th to beat No. 4 Kean, 6-5, Thursday afternoon at Memorial Field.
Austin Straus drove the first pitch he saw back up the middle to score Andrew Vallejo and clinch the win for the purple and gold.
The 10th inning single was the lone hit of the afternoon for Straus but it was the junior's efforts on the mound that stood out. Straus started and went 6.0 innings. Although he didn't factor in the decision, he held the Cougars (11-3) to four hits and left with a 5-1 lead.
Kean scored three runs in the seventh and forced the extra baseball with a two-out, RBI-single, in the ninth.
Taylor Fallon entered the game in the eighth inning and was in search of the rare two inning save. Fallon got out of a jam in the eighth and retired the first two batters he faced in the ninth before a hit bats men prolonged the inning.
Kean took advantage and hit back-to-back singles to tie the score at 5-5. Fallon stayed in the game in the 10th and threw only six pitches to the four batters he faced to keep the Cougars off the board. Vallejo led off the home half of the 10th with a double and after Cory Goodchild sacrificed him to third Straus took care of the rest.
Fallon earned the win to even his season record to 1-1. He allowed three hits and one run with one strike out over 3.0 innings of work.
Goodchild and Dan Gleiberman had multi-hit afternoons in the win.
Whittier struggled early as it managed just two hits in the first five innings. Goodchild started a five-run sixth frame for the Poets with a one-out single to right field and Gleiberman put two runners in scoring position with a double down the left field line.
A throwing error by Kean's third baseman allowed Goodchild to score and after Alex Gast drew a walk, Nathan Mendez blasted a three-run homerun to left field.
The Cougars responded with a three-run homerun of their own in the seventh.
Whittier returns to action on Saturday for a doubleheader against Puget Sound and Denison. The Poets will host the Loggers at 10:30 am and take on the Big Red at 3:00 pm.