The Santa Rosa Junior College baseball team took the final game of a three-game series against San Joaquin Delta thanks to 10 runs on 10 hits at home on Saturday.
The win comes after the Bear Cubs took their first loss at Delta on Thursday, snapping their 20-game win streak to open the season.
The Bear Cubs’ bats moved their team batting average to .277 on the season. The highlight of the day was a massive home run by freshman designated hitter J.T. Summers in the first inning.
SRJC freshman pitcher Lucas Hermes started the game and struck out five Delta hitters in 3 ⅔ innings of work.
The Bear Cubs gave Hermes some early run support, scoring two runs in the first inning. Freshman center fielder Cooper Wood doubled to lead off the game and his speed allowed him to move to 3rd on a wild pitch and score on a passed ball giving the Bear Cubs a 1-0 lead.
Summers followed with a solo shot over the left field wall that made the game 2-0 in the first.
“I hit the ball well on Thursday, as well as the other guys. I mean, just things weren’t falling, So today, things started to fall,” Summers said.
Hermes ran into trouble in the fourth, and allowed Delta to take the lead. After getting two outs to open the inning he struggled to get the final out. Two walks and a hit set the table for Delta second baseman Ian Guanzon to tie the game on a two-run single.
Sophomore pitcher Luke Schat came in to replace Hermes and limit the damage. The Bear Cubs answered right away in the bottom of the fourth with a four-spot.
Freshman left fielder Anane Wilson walked and freshman third baseman Caze Derammelaere was hit by a pitch to set the table. Cooper Wood doubled for the second time, bringing home Wilson. Freshman right fielder Ayden Herrguth followed that up with a two-run double of his own, bringing home Derammelaere and Wood.
Summers hit the third RBI double of the inning and brought home Herrguth, giving the Bear Cubs a 6-3 lead.
“I tell the boys, if we win every inning, we don’t have to look at the scoreboard,” assistant coach Tom Francois said. “They compete on every pitch, and you saw that today, regardless of who we’re playing.”
Schat restored order for the Bear Cubs, settling down the Delta bats and striking out seven in his 4 ⅓ innings of work. “[I’m] super confident in myself and super confident in my stuff. I just wanna beat everybody,” Schat said.
“As soon as that guy takes the bump, it’s almost a sigh of relief because you know he’s going to deal,” Francois said.
The Bear Cub bats added two more runs in the sixth on a Summers two-run single for his fourth RBI of the game. They added two more in the eighth on a Herrguth double, his third and fourth RBI of the game, making the game 10-3.
Freshman pitcher Luke Dillon slammed the door in the ninth on a dominant 10-3 Bear Cubs bounce-back win, to take two-out-of-three against San Joaquin Delta.
After an 8-1 win at Sierra College on Tuesday, the Bear Cubs will be back at home for game two against Sierra on Thursday.
