{"id":191674,"date":"2026-02-24T17:50:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T17:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/191674\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T17:50:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T17:50:13","slug":"helix-graduate-slugs-his-way-into-the-biola-university-baseball-record-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/191674\/","title":{"rendered":"Helix graduate slugs his way into the Biola University baseball record book"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\tOverview: James Whitman<\/p>\n

Whitman hit 14 home runs last year, just one shy of the Biola program\u2019s single-season record. He hit 12 as a sophomore and four as a freshman.<\/p>\n

James Whitman, a burly 6\u20196\u2033 250-pound right-handed hitter out of Helix Charter High School<\/a>, doesn\u2019t see many fastballs.<\/p>\n

But with one out in the bottom of the first inning of the second game of Biola University\u2019s<\/a> opening-day doubleheader against Regis<\/a> on Jan. 30, the senior first baseman, took a first-pitch fastball on the outer half of the plate from left-handed freshman pitcher Ryan Chesser and sent it over the fence in right-center, driving in fellow San Diegan Adiel Torres, who had doubled to reach second.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s always been a big, strong kid,\u201d said Biola Head Baseball Coach Jesse Rodgers, who thought off the bat it would be a double before it carried out of the park. \u201cHe knows that planning to hit the ball to the middle or the other way is the best way to attack off-speed pitches. Pitchers usually try soft away to get him to chase, and every once in a while, they\u2019ll throw a fastball in. He\u2019s committed to being on time for it and also being stubborn about his game plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

The home run, Whitman\u2019s 31st collegiate, set a Biola program record for their NCAA Division II era.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just nice to get that home run out of the way in the first weekend, so now I can build off of that and have a great senior campaign,\u201d said Whitman, a Spring Valley native. \u201cI try to understand how pitchers are going to pitch me. They\u2019re going to try to get ahead; the best pitch is strike one. I wasn\u2019t really surprised by the fastball; I was just excited that I got one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"James<\/a>Spring Valley native James Whitman. (Photo by Samantha Rainey)<\/p>\n

Whitman hit 14 home runs last year, just one shy of the Biola program\u2019s single-season record. He hit 12 as a sophomore and four as a freshman.<\/p>\n

A career .317 hitter, his disciplined approach at the plate has translated into 50 career walks and 31 hit-by-pitches.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t keep track of everything, but we have a board in our locker room with all the records,\u201d Whitman said. \u201cAfter last year\u2019s campaign, they updated it, and I was like, wow, I\u2019m really close on a lot of these records. It\u2019s in the back of my mind this season, but I\u2019m not trying to chase them. I\u2019m just trying to do what I do every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Putting in the work every day<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s meant a ton to our program,\u201d Rodgers said. \u201cHe\u2019s gone from a power, all-or-nothing guy to someone who can hit line drives and score runs. A lot of it comes down to the work he\u2019s put in every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whitman remembers his first home run, hit as an eight-year-old playing Little League at Valley De Oro, after his mom encouraged him to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still have that bat to this day,\u201d Whitman said. \u201cI felt like that was the major milestone that started my entire love for the game and the profession I\u2019m pursuing with baseball. It reminds me of how much fun I had as a kid, before any outside stress in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whitman graduated from Helix in 2022, having played three varsity seasons, earned all-league honors, and secured a spot on the San Diego High School All-Star Team (East).<\/p>\n

After college, Whitman said he plans to pursue professional baseball.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether that\u2019s going into the draft, playing indie ball, or whatever, the main goal is to play baseball as long as possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Overview: James Whitman Whitman hit 14 home runs last year, just one shy of the Biola program\u2019s single-season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[2135,1403,6571,89924,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-191674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-baseball","tag-biola-university","tag-helix-charter-high-school","tag-james-whitman","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}