The Santa Rosa Junior College baseball team took the first game of a three-game series against the Sacramento City College Panthers, dominating on both sides of the ball in a 12-1 win Tuesday at home.
The win is the Bear Cubs’ 13th straight and 33rd overall. Perfect Game ranks SRJC No. 8 in the United States among junior colleges. With five games left in the regular season, the Bear Cubs will look to finish strong and maintain their No. 1 ranking in California, and clinch the No. 1 seed going into the 3C2A playoffs.
Bear Cubs pitching allowed only one Sac City run, lowering their team ERA to 2.28 — the best in California.
SRJC sophomore Russel Freedheim started strong on the mound, allowing no runs and one hit with two strikeouts in two innings.
Sophomore pitcher and University of Nevada commit Jordan Giacomini handled the bulk of the innings, going 6 2/3 innings while recording eight strikeouts and only two walks, with the one run coming via a solo home run in the eighth inning.
“I was just out there trying to win every pitch, and then get out all those innings for my guys,” Giacomini said.
The Bear Cubs’ bats wasted no time getting going, scoring in each of the first two innings and going up 7-0 by the fifth.
“We try to take the game seriously,” assistant coach Tom Francois said. “The game can punish you, and that’s why we’re in playoff mode right now. It picks our guys up.”
Freshman center fielder Cooper Wood led the way for SRJC, picking up four hits, three RBIs and two runs scored.
Despite just one hit, sophomore first baseman Josh Martin had multiple hard-hit line drives and picked up two RBIs. On April 11, Martin announced his commitment to play Division I at the University of Hawaii in spring 2026.
In addition to 11 hits, the Bear Cubs took advantage of four Panthers errors.
“We don’t depend on guys making mistakes to win games,” Francois said.
The biggest swing of the game came via a solo home run by Shane Moran off the scoreboard in right-center field to lead off the fifth inning.
“It feels great to put it right up on the board for the team,” Moran said. “That’s what I do it for. It feels good to get an RBI and extend our lead.”
SRJC will travel to Sacramento for Game 2 on Thursday before returning home for Game 3 on Friday.
