Sagehens baseball faced the afternoon blues after dropping the last game of a three leg series to Whitman College, 9-3, at home on Saturday, Feb. 24 at Alumni Field. Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) still took the series 2-1, shutting out the Blues 6-0 on Friday and 7-0 on Saturday morning, but they fell short of a sweep with Saturday’s loss.
The Hens’ pitching staff shone in the first two games of the series, holding Whitman to eight hits and no runs over 18 combined innings. Jake Hilton PO ’25 started Friday’s game for P-P and pitched six innings, allowing four hits and striking out five batters. Eric Prough PO ’24 and Jack Wiessinger PZ ’27 closed out the game, striking out three and allowing no hits.
Hannoh Seo PO ’26 started on Saturday morning and pitched seven innings, allowing three hits and striking out four batters. Prough and Jake Albro PO ’24 each pitched one inning to finish the shutout and give Seo the win.
P-P also got their bats moving in the first two games of the series, helping them to a combined 13 runs. First baseman Cooper Berry PZ ’27 said that an effort from both sides of the ball helped the Hens to these two wins.
“Bats were hot,” Berry said. “This series overall we had two shutouts, so really proud of our [pitching] staff. I thought they did a great job this weekend.”
However, going into game three the bats cooled off. The Hens were not able to generate the same offensive and defensive power that they needed to secure the sweep. Berry attributed this to the possibility that the team put too much pressure on themselves for perfection.
“Game threes are always tough after you win the first two,” Berry said. “Trying to sweep, I think we were trying to be too perfect.”
Game three was a rough outing for starter Harry Deliyannis PO ’24 with Whitman opening the game by putting two men on with a pair of singles. Whitman broke open the scoring with a double down the third base line and added a sacrifice fly to bring in the two runners. However, with two outs and one on, shortstop Greg Pierantoni PO ’27 stopped the bleeding, making a diving stop on a hard hit ball and throwing out the runner at first to end the inning.
Right fielder Nate Jakobs PZ ’24 compared the game to their previous face off against Lewis and Clark College on Sunday, Feb. 18 when they lost 2-10. He said he was pleased with the team’s performance in the first two games of the series, but noticed the difference in effort in game three.
“I think we had a similar issue today that we had against Lewis and Clark in game four last weekend, in that we came out a little flat,” Jakobs said. “We came out in the first two games against two really good arms and we came out with really good focus and a really detailed plan and I don’t think that every at bat in game three was as detailed as it was in games one and two.”
The next Whitman score came on a three run homer in the top of the fourth, followed by a pitching change that brought in William Wallace PO ’27 for his third appearance of the season. Wallace pitched two and a half scoreless innings before an RBI double in the seventh increased Whitman’s lead to 6-0. He was replaced by Weston Janavs PZ ’24 in the eighth.
It wasn’t until the bottom half of the inning that P-P responded with Isaac Kim PO ’24 smashing a three run homer to dead center. Jakobs commented on Kim’s performance, describing high expectations for his teammate.
“I think that’s the first of a lot this year,” Jakobs said. “I think we’re gonna see a lot of really hard hit balls from Isaac Kim.”
This hit was the last of the game for the Hens, though Whitman put three more runs on the board in the top of the ninth against Wiessinger and Stephen Kwak PO ’25, making the final score 9-3.
“I didn’t feel like we played our best baseball today,” head coach Frank Pericolosi said after the game. “We’ve just got to find ways to avoid let ups in competitiveness and come ready to play every single pitch.”
Despite the afternoon loss, the series displayed a deep bench full of senior leadership and young talent alike.
“We brought in a really talented class this year,” Jakobs said. “We’re seeing a lot of them get a lot of opportunities early on.”
With SCIAC play on the horizon, the Hens are hoping to build on this series and showcase this talent against their Sixth Street rivals, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, in their first conference game of the season. Having gone one and five against the Stags the last two years, P-P is expecting a better result when they meet in a week.
“That’ll be a fun series,” Berry said. “We’re home on Friday, so really excited for that. I think we got a great chance this year.”
After this series the Hens raised their record to 9-3 with a win over Pacific Lutheran on Sunday, Feb. 25. P-P now has their sights set on the Stags for their SCIAC opener on Friday, March 1.
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