Photo of Riley Bender (#16) by Luke Zayas/True To The Cru/Luke Zayas Photography
BELTON, Texas–In a high-scoring affair on Wednesday afternoon, UMHB’s Riley Bender continued his hot start to the 2024 season, swatting three home runs, though Whittier handed the 20th-ranked Crusaders their second loss of the season.
The 13-10 win for Whittier in non-conference play saw high-powered offense from both sides with the Poets and Cru combining for 28 hits and at least one run in eight of the nine innings. Whittier improves to 6-7 overall while UMHB drops to 13-2.
Bender, a junior transfer from Division I Abilene Christian, did all he could to lift UMHB to victory in a 4-for-5 performance at the plate. All four of the third baseman’s hits went for extra bases, as he paired the three homers with a second-inning double. Bender also scored four runs and tallied four RBIs, both game-highs.
Notably, his three home runs tied the UMHB single-game record in that category as hit a homer off each of the three pitchers he faced.
“It’s huge,” Bender told Kyle Shipp in a postgame interview. “I’ve been needing a lot of confidence lately and that game really just put me over the top. We put up 16 hits as a team as well, so that is going to bode well for us going into the conference series this weekend. Hopefully we can stay hot and get a sweep.”
After a scoreless first inning, Bender’s first at-bat came in the second, where his one-out double off the outfield wall advanced Weston Dean to third. Dean came around to score on a Carson Riley single in the next at-bat as part of a three-run inning.
Dean then reached base yet again in the third inning, with a triple, setting up Bender’s first home run of the afternoon. The two-run homer was exactly what UMHB needed after Whittier jumped out to a 7-3 advantage in a six-run third inning, as Bender’s two-run shot cut the deficit in half.
After striking out to end the fourth inning, Bender responded with a leadoff home run in the seventh. It cut Whittier’s lead to 12-9 as the Poets pushed 11 runs across in a three-inning span between the third and the fifth.
He then capped his performance in the bottom of the ninth, with a solo home run at the top of the frame. Once again, it pulled UMHB within three runs, but it turned out to be The Cru’s only hit of the inning. Whittier sealed its victory there, despite 16 hits in total from The Cru, highlighted by Bender’s four.
Game Notes
- Four UMHB errors in the game aided Whittier’s high-scoring win, as it marked the second-most errors in a single contest for The Cru this season. Two of those errors notably came in the third inning, when the Poets pushed six runs across.
- In addition to Bender, Carson Riley (3 hits) Kaden deBerardinis (2), Rhett Grosz (2), Weston Dean (2), and Blake Gonzalez (2) each put together multi-hit performances.
- It is the fifth time this season that UMHB has scored 10 or more runs in a single game.
- UMHB used seven pitchers in the contest, with Quint Mullen making the second start of his career. The freshman walked one batter and did not allow a hit in one inning of work. Only Gavan Hutton and Nick Fenner fired more than 2.0 or more innings, as Hutton allowed just one run through the sixth and seventh innings, and Fenner closed the game with a scoreless eighth and ninth.
Up Next
UMHB welcomes McMurry to Belton for an ASC weekend series. Friday’s first pitch is at 6 p.m. followed by a 12 p.m. doubleheader on Saturday. The Warhawks enter the three-game series with a 3-3 record in league play.
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