WHITTIER — Devon DeRaad blasted his nation-leading 11th home run to save the day in the ninth and the Occidental baseball team jumped into first place in the SCIAC with its third ninth-inning rally is less than 48 hours, beating Whittier 6-5 in 12 innings at Memorial Field on Saturday.

Trailing 4-3 with two outs and a runner on base in the top of the ninth inning, DeRaad hit his third home run of the series, giving Oxy a 5-4 lead.

The Poets evened the score in the bottom half, but Jake Chambers brought in Johnathan Brookswith an RBI-sacrifice fly that was muffed in center field in the 12th.

DeRaad, who hit a pair of home runs in the first game of the series on Friday, also earned the save, pitching a scoreless bottom half of the 12th. 

Daniel Gowanlock, who pitched the 10th and 11th, earned the win, allowing just two hits. 

The Tigers capitalized on a Whittier fielding error in the ninth inning of Game 1 of the series on Friday for a 7-6 win and scrapped together two runs in the ninth inning for a 4-3 comeback win in the early game on Saturday.

Oxy earns its third series sweep and fourth series win in SCIAC play, improving to 16-7 overall and 12-3 in conference. The Tigers are tied for first with La Verne (12-3).

Oxy second baseman Charlie Caccamo, the team's leader in hits and batting average, went 3 for 5 with an RBI-single in the top of the third that brought home Walker Marks for the Tigers' first run.

Chambers also drove in a run in the fourth with an RBI-single. Brooks went 2 for 4 with a run scored and Jonathan Wong was 2 for 5 with a run scored.

Riley James started the game for the Tigers, striking out six batters with four earned runs in 7.1 innings pitched. 

Game 1 Recap: Occidental 7, Whittier 6

Game 2 Recap: Occidental 3, Whittier 2

Next Game: Oxy begins an important three-game series against Pomona-Pitzer (9-3 SCIAC) in Claremont on Friday at 3 p.m. The Sagehens currently sit tied for third in the SCIAC with Cal Lutheran at 9-3.