Basking in the warmth of the early afternoon sun, a small, but vocal crowd of loyal fans watched as Bakersfield College eked out an 8-7 win over Moorpark in baseball’s home opener at Raiders Stadium Thursday, Feb. 4.
The Renegades took a commanding 7-1 lead in the top of the sixth inning, but the Raiders rebounded to tie the game 7-7 in the seventh. The visitors won with a run in the ninth on a double by Luiz Martinez, who drove in the runner from second.
“In the ninth inning in a tied game, I wanted to give the team a chance to put up some runs,” said Moorpark freshman reliever John Cashman, who pitched three solid innings. “The runner was on second, and I was trying to get a strike over on a 2-0 count so I wouldn’t walk the guy. I ended up hanging the pitch, and he hit a line drive.”
Infielder Garrett Kueber opened the third for Moorpark with a double, reached third base on an out at first and scored the Raiders first run on Riley Conlan’s RBI out at first.
“It was a tough loss, but we can take a lot of positives from this,” said outfielder Austin Fields. “I’m a red-shirt freshman. Last year in my first game here, I broke my hand and I had to have surgery to get the bone out.”
Bakersfield batted around with four runs in the fifth, and added three more for good measure in the sixth, to make the score 7-1.
With no outs and the bases loaded for the visitors in the fifth, Kyle James’ double drove in two runs. With two outs and the bases loaded, starting pitcher Jake Eaton almost wriggled free of further damage, but his base-on-ball on a 3-2 count pushed home the third run. A throwing error to first by catcher Lorenzo Perez brought in the fourth.
“I was doing really well up until the fifth inning,” said sophomore starter Jake Eaton. “I gave up a few runs. My arm felt good, but I have to put more pressure on their offense, give up less walks and get pitches over.”
The Raiders struck back with five runs in the bottom half of the sixth. Two back-to-back base hits by outfielders Austin Fields and Jack Rosenberg set the table for pinch hitter Ethan Lageson, who walked to load the bases. Blake Chiaramonte was hit by a pitch, walking in a run.
Kueber’s RBI out at first scored the second run. Tate’s base hit drove Lageson home, and Conlan walked to load the bases with one out. Designated hitter Dalton Duarte’s walk added another, and a wild pitch by the erratic Renegades reliever Cain Roberts, closed the gap, 7-6.
“Cash did a good job of coming in and getting them out,” said Head Coach Mario Porto. “Every pitch is important. He threw one bad pitch and that was the go-ahead run.”
Duarte’s double set the table for the tying run in the seventh inning. Lumbering down the baseline like a freight train from third an out later, the 6’6”, 270 lb. Duarte was a dead duck on a relay from centerfield. However, the catcher dropped the ball in the dusty collision at the plate. Safe!
“We played well, [and] have to keep grinding it out,” shortstop Terrell Tate said. “We’ll keep working to figure it out, and be ready for conference.”
The final meeting of the regular season between these two teams takes place on Saturday at Bakersfield at 6 p.m. under the lights. Check the CCCAA sports website for in-depth statistics of the game.
