After trailing 4-1 through four innings, the Santa Rosa Junior College baseball team rallied in the middle innings to take the final game of a three-game series, sweeping the Sacramento City Panthers at home Friday.
After clinching the Big 8 Conference title on Thursday, the Bear Cubs celebrated with their 15th straight win to move to 35-1 overall and 20-1 in conference play. Following wins by 18 combined runs in the first two games, Sacramento City gave the Bear Cubs a battle on Friday.
Like each of their previous three games and eight of their last nine, the Bear Cubs got hot early and scored in the first inning. Freshman center fielder Cooper Wood walked and quickly added his Big 8 Conference-leading 24th steal. Freshman right fielder Ayden Herrguth followed Wood with a single. Freshman designated hitter J.T. Summers grounded into a double play, scoring Wood and giving the Bear Cubs the 1-0 lead.
Freshman pitcher Wyatt Abramson started for SRJC, going 2 2/3 innings while striking out two, but found himself in danger in the third, giving up four in the inning — three unearned — as a two-out error by sophomore first baseman Josh Martin kept the inning alive. Sophomore pitcher Raul Valdivia came in for Abramson and got the final out, keeping the game 4-1.
Valdivia restored order for the Bear Cubs, going 4 1/3 innings while striking out four and allowing only one run, giving the offense time to get back into the game. The Bear Cubs began chipping away in the fifth.
Cooper Wood walked to open the inning, advanced to third on a failed pickoff attempt and eventually scored on a passed ball.
“You got a guy that can motor and the defense knows that as well, so it puts added pressure on them,” assistant coach Tom Francois said. “They know he’s going to go. It’s just a question of when.”
Summers added another run with his seventh homer of the season, a towering home run to left field.
“The swing before that one was might be my worst swing of the year. I had to make up for it and they threw the same exact thing and I was ready for it this time,” Summers said.
Summers is second in the Big 8 conference with a .377 batting average, fifth in home runs (7) and first in RBIs (54).
The Bear Cubs wasted no time taking the lead in the following inning. Freshman left fielder Shane Moran opened the inning with a walk, followed by a single from freshman shortstop Brett Neidlinger, and sophomore third baseman Tyler Nordyke was hit by a pitch, loading the bases. Freshman Caze Derammelaere pinch-hit for sophomore catcher Cameron Duran and drew a bases-loaded walk to tie the game.
After a fielder’s choice from Wood, freshman right fielder Ayden Herrguth stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs and ripped a three-run double down the left-field line, emptying the bases and giving the Bear Cubs their lead back, 7-4.
“Really special moment because that’s all I’m out here trying to do is just try to win for my guys,” Herrguth said.
Sacramento City wouldn’t go away easily. Valdivia walked four consecutive Panthers to open the seventh, pulling them within two, but slammed the door with three consecutive outs, leaving the bases loaded.
Sophomore pitcher Caleb Okada took over for Valdivia in the eighth and the Panthers threatened again. Two singles and a two-out error by Tyler Nordyke left the bases loaded with two outs, but Okada matched Valdivia by snuffing out the Panthers comeback attempt.
“Oh my golly — those were really big in the seventh inning and eighth innings,” Francois said. “Those guys did a whale of a job.”
Okada came back out for the ninth, striking out two Panthers hitters and getting the save, putting an exclamation point on the Bear Cubs 7-5 come-from-behind victory.
SRJC will travel to Folsom Lake on Tuesday to open a three-game series, looking to finish the regular season strong.
