Osaki outduels Garcia, Poets in first round of SCIAC Tourney

ORANGE, Calif. – Behind an outstanding pitching effort from senior RHP Kevin Osaki, the Chapman University baseball team edged out visiting Whittier College 2-1 in the first round of the SCIAC Postseason Tournament on Friday afternoon at Hart Park. The No. 2-seeded Panthers will travel to Thousand Oaks to face host and top seed Cal Lutheran University on Saturday at noon in a winner's bracket game.

Osaki scattered eight hits in 7 1/3 innings and fanned 11 batters with no walks to improve to 5-0 this season for Chapman (29-11). Sophomore RHP Braden Riddle recorded a perfect five-out save, including four strikeouts to close the game for his fourth save. Riddle inherited the tying and go-ahead runners on base in the eighth inning before getting back-to-back strikeouts to silence the threat. The two Chapman pitchers combined to strike out 15 Whittier batters on Friday.

Senior OF Connor Battaglia knocked in the eventual game-winning run in the bottom of the sixth inning with the score tied at 1-1. With runners on second and third and two outs, Battaglia flared a ball into right field that scored sophomore IF Tim Alhanati with an unearned run and forced a play at the plate that saw senior IF Mark Saatzer thrown out for the final out of the inning.

Whittier sophomore LHP Nick Garcia (5-7) made it a legitimate pitcher's duel, limiting the Panthers to just six hits in a complete-game effort. He allowed just one earned run over eight inning, striking out a pair.

Chapman snapped a scoreless tie just an inning earlier after sophomore IF Tyler Cook and junior OF Greg Dillon led off the inning with back-to-back singles. Cook eventually scored on a double play ball to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead. Cook went 2-for-3 in the game as Chapman's 5-8 batters went 5-for-12.

The Poets responded in the top of the sixth with three straight hits off of Osaki, including a double by junior C Stephen Zavala and an RBI single from sophomore OF Jonathan Whipple. Zavala and Whipple finished with five of the Poets' eight hits.

The championships now shift to Thousand Oaks and Cal Lutheran University, which will host the remaining games of the double-elimination tournament. Should Chapman defeat the Kingsmen on Saturday, it will advance to the championship game on Sunday. A loss would mean the Panthers would have to come back and play again on Saturday and need to win two on Sunday to earn the conference's automatic berth into the NCAA Division III playoffs.

by Doug Aiken
Sports Information Director

Boxscore: http://www.chapmanathletics.com/sports/bsb/2013-14/boxscores/20140502_o7zy.xml

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