Foard, Anzai drive in five en route to victory
ORANGE, Calif — A big game across the board, especially the bat of Cooper Foard and the arm of Grant Manning, powered baseball to a huge 6-4 win over the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens on Friday, Apr. 29 at Hart Park.
As Foard stepped to the plate in the seventh inning he already brought with him two hits and an RBI. A runner, Cole Minato, stood out at second after a leadoff single awaiting the crack of Foard's bat. He ripped a line drive out into the gap in left center, getting down past the reach of the left fielder bringing Minato home, moving Drew Littwin to third and Foard to second with his arms raised in the air in triumph.
At the time the Panthers took a 5-4 lead, which would later be extended as AJ Anzai walked bringing home Littwin.
It was a tight journey leading up to the bottom of the seventh inning. The Panthers jumped out to an early lead after Foard singled up the middle driving in Nick Kondo who led off the game getting hit by a pitch — Kondo one of the five hit batters in the game, which would prove crucial down the stretch as Oli Sellman, the fifth hit batter, was plunked loading the bases for Anzai with two outs in the seventh.
Pomona-Pitzer would answer back in the third inning after Manning shut down the first six batters he faced in order, the Sagehens scraped across a two-out run.
Chapman answered with three of their own in the bottom half of the third. Two doubles, one by Davis Mieliwocki and another from Anzai accounted for all three of the runs scored in the inning, the two-run blow coming from Anzai with two outs.
The toughest inning for Chapman came in the fifth when a pair of errors on a couple hits allowed runners to advance further, leaving them in scoring position for a bloop single driving in a run. All told, Pomona-Pitzer tied the game at four heading into the bottom of the fifth, before the Panthers put it away in the seventh.
Manning got the win, improving to 6-1, allowing four earned runs, despite the errors, on ten hits striking out nine Sagehens. He was pulled in the ninth after recording one out with 136 pitches thrown. Mike Gorman came in to clean up the damage with a pair of runners on base. The senior struck out the Sagehens leadoff hitter and forced a fielder's choice ground out to end the game en route to his second save of the season
With the win, the Panthers improved to 26-9 and 14-5 in SCIAC play. The Sagehens fell to 26-6 and 14-5. The win helped the Panthers move into a tie for second place with Pomona-Pitzer, which will be decided after tomorrow's double header in Claremont.
By Joe Perrino
Assistant SID / Recreation Sports Manager
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