WHITTIER, Calif. – The Whittier baseball team plated 10 runs on 13 hits as it opened the 2011 season with a 10-7 win over NAIA Westmont on Friday afternoon at Memorial Field.

The Poets (1-0) scored four runs in the bottom of the first to take a lead it would not relinquish. Reed Tuttle started the home half of the inning with a leadoff single and advanced to second on the ensuing plate appearance after Cory Goodchild reached on an infield single of his own.

Dan Gleiberman made his first at bat with the purple and gold a good one by loading the bases on a single to right field. Darby Weppner drew a walk to score Tuttle from third and Alex Gast drove in two runs with a double to center. Alex Mitchell capped the inning with an RBI single to left.

Starting pitcher Keith Hoefel had a rocky first inning but settled down and threw three consecutive scoreless frames in the second, third and fourth. Whittier gave Hoefel three more runs in the bottom of the fourth and after recording two outs in the fifth he was relieved in place of Austin Nogueira.

Hoefel went 4.2 innings, allowed four runs (two earned) on five hits and struck out three.

The bottom of the fourth featured an RBI single from Goodchild, an RBI sacrifice fly from Gleiberman and an RBI double off the bat of Weppner.

The Poets added one run in the bottom of the sixth and tacked on two more in the seventh en route to the win.

Goodchild hit an RBI sacrifice fly to score Sean-Michael Nada in the sixth and Austin Straus doubled to left center to highlight the seventh inning.

Mike Rueda was solid out of the pen. He allowed just one hit with a pair of strike outs in 1.2 innings. Taylor Fallon threw the final innings and gave up two runs.

Goodchild finished 3-for-4 with two runs and two RBI while Weppner, Straus and Mitchell all had multi-hit afternoons.

The Poets will return to action on Friday, February 4, as they host Chapman University at 2:30 pm.