THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. —The University of La Verne baseball team was eliminated from the double-elimination SCIAC Postseason Tournament as it fell to Whittier, 5-4, on Saturday morning at the Ullman Stadium. The Leopards lost to Cal Lutheran, 8-5, in Game 1 Friday afternoon.

The Poets pushed across four in the bottom of the ninth, capped off by a Julian Barzili walk-off single, to stave off elimination.

After a quick leadoff out, Jonathan Whipple walked and advanced to second on a wild pitch by La Verne starter Kevin Knight. Willie Renard then promptly singled up the middle to bring home Whipple and Knight was pulled in favor of closer Brett Early. However, Early couldn't shut the door and loaded the bases for Whittier. The Poets then scored on a fielder's choice to get within one and chase Early.

Phil Schick couldn't stop the bleeding either. On a 2-2 count, Corey Jensen poked a single to left to score Chris Sekiguchi and Barzili finished off the comeback with an RBI single to left, also on a 2-2 count.

Knight was cruising until he ran into trouble in the ninth and had only given up an unearned run up until that point. The senior ace finished with 8.1 innings and four strikeouts.

The teams were locked in a 1-1 battle until the late innings, when it seemed as if La Verne had given itself some cushion. In the seventh, Nolan Henley doubled down the left field line to score Michael Reyes and give the Leopards its first lead of the game at 2-1. The next La Verne half inning, Holland and Surdo knocked in two more runs on a double and single, respectively, to open up a 4-1 lead.

Whittier got on the board first in the third inning. After Graham Pimm beat out an infield single to short, he was moved over to second on a sacrifice bunt. A throwing error by Pedro Espinoza allowed Pimm to advance to third and Barzili brought him in with a sacrifice fly.

The Leopards answered immediately in the top of the fourth. With runners at the corners and the infielders playing normal depth, Josh Surdo plated Espinoza with a fielder's choice to even the score at 1-1.

La Verne once again hit well. The Leopards collected 10 hits as a team and Henley, Holland and Mark Jebbia each had two knocks.

Whittier finished with 11 hits. Jensen, Barzili and Pimm also had two hits apiece.