Whittier, Calif. - The Pomona-Pitzer Baseball team scored five times in the first two innings and went to capture an 11-1, seven-inning win over Whittier on Wednesday afternoon to maintain its share of first place in the SCIAC. 

Senior shortstop Sam Fox singled and doubled in each of the first two innings to extend his hitting streak to 26 games before coming around to score both times, while sophomore center fielder Tanner Nishioka capped off the Pomona-Pitzer scoring with a grand slam in the seventh to enforce the SCIAC's 10-run rule. Sophomore pitcher Lane Miles went the distance allowing five hits to get the win. 

The victory improves Pomona-Pitzer's record to 26-10 overall and 18-7 in the SCIAC with three games left to play. The Sagehens came into the game in a three-way tie with La Verne and Cal Lutheran for first place and none of the three play each other in the final four-game round robin. Whittier falls to 9-27 overall and 7-18 in the SCIAC with the loss. 

Fox singled to start the game and push his hitting streak to 26 games in his first at bat. He has now had a hit in 35 of 36 games this season, with the only exception an 0-for-2 game against Redlands when he was hit by a pitch twice and walked once. Junior Simon Rosenbaum followed with a double, and Fox later came in on a wild pitch while Rosenbaum scored on an RBI groundout from senior Jake Bruml.  

With two outs in the second, sophomore catcher Kevin Jordan singled and Fox followed with a double. Nishioka walked to load the bases, a Rosenbaum walk forced in a run and Bruml added a two-run single to make it 5-0 in the second. 

Freshman left fielder Adam Hinthorne added an RBI single in the fifth and a sacrifice fly in the seventh, before Nishioka hit a grand slam with two outs in the seventh to make the score 11-1. Miles retired the side in order in the bottom of the seventh to finish off his win. 

Fox, Rosenbaum and Okuma were each 2-for-4 for the Sagehens, while Bruml finished with three RBI and increased his career total to 198 hits, leaving him two shy of the 200 milestone with at least five games left if Pomona-Pitzer earns its likely qualification for the conference tournament.  Miles improves to 7-4 on the season with the win, including his third complete game. 

Pomona-Pitzer returns to action on Saturday with a road game against Chapman, before closing out the regular season with home games on Sunday against Redlands (11 a.m.) and CMS (3 p.m.).