By
Jacob Norling
January 28, 2022
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Westmont's offense broke things open early on Friday as the Warriors (1-1) defeated Saint Katherine (0-2) 15-7 for their first win of the season. After the club stranded 11 runners on opening day, the bats arrived in grand fashion on Friday afternoon.
"Interesting enough, early on it all came via the solo home run again," said Westmont head coach
Robert Ruiz, "but you have to let things unfold the way they're going to unfold. I like that we were a little more aggressive early in counts today. Early on, we saw some good fastballs and put some good swings on them.
"Different guys stepped up today and it was a good overall performance from this offense."
Robbie Haw got the party started when he led off the bottom of the first inning with a no-doubt home run to straight-away left. It was the first home run in a Westmont uniform for Haw, who recorded just seven extra-base hits in 162 plate appearances last season.
Josh Rego was the next Warrior to leave the yard when he scorched a line drive over the left field wall to open up the bottom of the second. Westmont broke the game open during the same frame. After
Brady Renck brought in a run with an infield single,
Simon Reid unloaded the bases for a three-run triple that put the club up 6-0.
An inning later, Rego hit the third consecutive leadoff home run of the day, this time a towering fly ball that the senior knew was gone the moment he hit it. Later on, in the fifth inning,
David Martinez clubbed the fourth home run of the day for the Warriors when he drilled a ball into the net beyond the wall in right-center field. It was the first home run for Martinez in a Westmont uniform.
"Those swings from
Josh Rego were really nice to see," noted Ruiz. "He's got plenty of power and last year we used to joke with him about only hitting singles and doubles. He's worked really hard and we talked about that before the season. It's been nice these first couple days to see him hit with the power he's capable of."
In the bottom of the sixth, Reid picked up his fourth and fifth RBIs of the day when he sprayed a double down the left field line.
Thomas Rudinsky then drove in Reid with a clean single up the middle to cap off a three-run inning.
After picking up his second hit of the day, Renck carried home the club's 13th run on a throwing error in the eighth. Then,
Justin Rodriguez drove in a run with a double off the wall for his first collegiate hit. Eventually,
Jack Thompson scored the final run of the day when he came home on a fielding error.
Not lost in the shadow of the Warriors' offense was an absolute gem from
Bradley Heacock, who matched
Bryan Peck's five scoreless innings from the day before. After appearing in 14 games out of the bullpen in 2021, Heacock began his first collegiate start with a swinging strikeout and maintained control of the game from there.
Heacock, who scattered just three singles over five innings of work, struck out five without allowing a walk in a winning effort.
"We just saw two guys on back-to-back days put up great performances in their first collegiate starts," expressed Ruiz, "That was the Heacock we saw this fall who is much more mature and much more experienced. The experience he got last year was invaluable and he proved how ready he was to take the mound today.
"He looked like a completely different guy than he did a year ago and we already loved what he brought last season. That was a fantastic start from him and he is going to build off of it."
The club returns to action tomorrow when they host Providence Christian for a doubleheader beginning at 11:00 a.m. Game two will begin approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of game one and tickets are available on the Westmont Athletics website.
"We have a couple upper-classmen who will start on the mound tomorrow, and we have a good sense of what to expect from them," said Ruiz. "We hope they can continue to put up zeroes for us and because of our starters these last two days, our bullpen is ready to go as well."
