SportsBaseball

Baseball breaks out the brooms

Senior second baseman Corey Rooper and junior shortstop Eddie Munoz turn a double play against Whittier College last Friday. La Verne's offense racked up 10 runs by the end of the fourth inning, and strong defensive play held that lead as they swept the Poets in a three-game series, 14-3, 17-6, and 19-1. The team begins a three-game series against Cal Lu today. / photo by Jason Cooper
Senior second baseman Corey Rooper and junior shortstop Eddie Munoz turn a double play against Whittier College last Friday. La Verne’s offense racked up 10 runs by the end of the fourth inning, and strong defensive play held that lead as they swept the Poets in a three-game series, 14-3, 17-6, and 19-1. The team begins a three-game series against Cal Lu today. / photo by Jason Cooper

by Enrique Gutiérrez
Staff Writer

Sweeping the three-game series against Whittier College was not the hardest challenge for the University of La Verne baseball team.

The Leopards not only defeated the Poets, they humiliated them in a brutal manner with a 50-10 combined score.

“We just played really well in all aspects of the game,” said assistant coach Pat McGee.

“We had a good weekend. We were fortunate. We swung the bat, we played defense and pitched OK,” said head coach Bobby Lee.

The series started on Friday at Ben Hines Field with a 14-3 victory for La Verne. Then, on Saturday, La Verne traveled to Whittier to play a doubleheader. The day’s first game ended 17-6. As if that wasn’t enough, the Leopards piled it on in the third game by scoring 19 runs and allowing the host team to tally only one run.

That attitude is, perhaps, inspired by a note posted outside the baseball office, which the players have seemingly taken very seriously.

It reads, “Do you believe? Do you have passion? How important is it to you? We may never accomplish what we so very much want, but we need to commit ourselves to working toward those goals, trusting in what we are given, and going after those visions like a SAVAGE.”

The team has started the season with an 8-1 record and a current eight-game winning streak. Prior to destroying Whittier, the Leopards had also swept Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.

“We came out hammering the ball,” senior outfielder Garren Injijian said of the Whittier series.

The ULV onslaught against Whittier began in the first inning of Game 1. Senior outfielder Andrew Woolsey was the first Leopard to step to the plate, and he reached first base walking. Five batters later, with the bases loaded, sophomore catcher Nick Cordova hit a single to left field to drive in La Verne’s first two runs. Then, junior Matt Cresto hit a solid double to knock in three more runs for La Verne. ULV was up 6-0 after one inning. That was only the genesis of what was about to come.

Senior pitcher Ryan Christoph held the Poets scoreless through six innings, and earned a win to improve his record to 2-0.

Dustin Boots, a sophomore third baseman for Whittier, scored the first run for the Poets in the top of the seventh inning, but by that time the Leopards had a 13-1 lead.

On Saturday, La Verne continued to show its offensive power and flash the leather, which meant embarrassing scores for Whittier.

Injijian scored three runs, including one off a home run. Senior second baseman Corey Rooper and junior first baseman Nathan Devine also homered.

Woolsey went 3-for-5 with a triple, and had three RBI.

From the mound, junior pitcher Jon Cruz struck out four and walked two batters in seven innings. His record stands at 3-0.

For the Poets, Boots had four hits in five at-bats, and scored three of Whittier’s six runs.

The third and final game of the series seemed destined to be closer than the first two. It ended up being the opposite.

La Verne scored in the first inning when Injijian drove in Woolsey. But a 1-0 lead did not give the Leopards any guarantees.

Once again, La Verne’s defense held Whittier scoreless for most of the game. Through five innings, Whittier only managed two hits.

For La Verne, Injijian and Cordova scored in the third and fourth innings, respectively, to put the Leopards up 3-0.

In the top of the sixth Rooper added another run for La Verne after Whittier’s Greg Makos, a freshman third baseman, committed an error that allowed Cresto to reach first base. Rooper took advantage of Makos’ error to score. Cresto also scored eventually.

The Poets scored their lone run in the top of the sixth via a long-ball from junior outfielder Rob Frith.

However, La Verne was not done and scored 14 runs in the last three innings.

Woolsey hit a triple with two outs in the top of the eight. He finished with two hits and three runs in five at-bats.

Junior outfielder Eric Garma also scored three runs and had three hits, including a homer in the seventh.

Freshman outfielder Ray Podesta opened the ninth inning with a single to center, and Cresto followed with a double. Woolsey and Garma then hit consecutive singles before freshman Nick Rohr was walked.

Back-to-back doubles by freshman second baseman Justin Brown and Rooper continued the Leopard attack. Podesta came back to the plate and cleared the bases with a home run deep to center field, which sealed the game.

“We are going to continue to compete regardless of the score,” McGee said. “Just because we are winning doesn’t mean we’re going to try any less harder. We expect our guys to have the same quality at-bats regardless of the score.”

“Our guys have started to understand that we are not playing opponents, we are playing the game. We are not worrying about the people we are playing,” Lee said.

Senior pitcher Bo Balzar struck out four Poets and allowed only four hits in seven innings of work, and improving to 3-0. Devine closed the door with four strike outs in the last two innings.

The Leopards finished with 20 hits in the game, and a total of 58 for the series.

“I think we feed off each other. If one person starts hitting, the lineup starts hitting, everybody starts hitting,” Injijian said. “Its like just gets in our blood.”

The Leopards know the Whittier series helped them to get ready for this weekend’s series against Cal Lutheran.

“Great preparation for this weekend,” junior outfielder Scott Iavorone said. “That’s a big series and we need everyone at school to support us.”

“Everyone had a good weekend,” said Injijian. “We just take that momentum into this weekend.”

Injijian added that La Verne has not beaten Cal Lu since 1995.

“They’re going to be just like any other team. They’re not any better than us,” he said. “We should go out with the same mentality that we’ve been doing the past few weeks and play our baseball, play our game. The second we try to change things because it seems it’s a bigger series, that’s when we are going to screw up.”

“Pitch by pitch, inning by inning, game by game,” Woolsey said. “If you break it down in that sense, if we can play hard every inning our chances increase.”

Lee said the Leopards will go out with the same pitcher rotation they have been using from the beginning of the season. That is Cristoph will start today, while Cruz and Balzar tomorrow.

The Leopards visit Cal Lu today at 2:30 p.m. and tomorrow will host it in a doubleheader starting at 11 a.m.

“That’s the championship series,” said Injijian. “Do or die.”

Enrique Gutiérrez, Staff Writer
Enrique Gutiérrez
Other Stories
Jason Cooper, Staff Photographer
Jason Cooper
Other Stories
Previous article
ASF Minutes
Next article
Fair offers variety of organizations

Latest Stories

Related articles

Baseball

New minor league team touches down in Ontario

The Ontario Tower Buzzers held their weekly Family Sunday event Aug. 23 at ONT Field.
Baseball

Baseball and softball end seasons at SCIAC tournament

The baseball and softball teams both saw their seasons end last weekend in their respective Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference postseason tournaments.
Baseball

Leopards sweep Senior Day doubleheader, head to SCIAC tournament

The Leopards dominated during their Senior Day doubleheader against Redlands at Ben Hines Field on Saturday, bouncing back from a series-opening loss to the Bulldogs on May 1. Game one’s final score was 9-2, and game two's score was 6-2.
Baseball

Leopards earn walk-off win over Chapman

A walk-off error gave the Leopards the win over the Chapman Panthers, 8-7, in their series opener April 24 at Ben Hines Field.