Cougars baseball takes down Corsairs, loses in playoffs
The Lassen College baseball team cast off April with three games against the College of the Redwoods Corsairs. The games played on Wednesday, April 26 and Thursday, April 27 resulted in two Cougar wins.
The April 26 game resulted in a 7-5 win for Lassen with the Corsairs kicking themselves for the close game.
Initially down by two at the bottom of the first inning, the Cougars summoned all their power to steal the lead 4-2 and keep climbing until the win was secured before the end of inning nine.
In the first inning, Eric Carlson singled to bring in Ryan Thomasy for the first run of the day. With Carlson on first and Adam Frandsen on second, Nathan Hedberg stood at bat, more ready than ever. Hedberg hit a home run to bring in three runs including his own.
The next inning saw Alex Valencia score with Thomasy’s sacrifice fly to thank.
Inning three saw the second Cougar home run of the day with Frandsen behind the bat. With 6-2, Lassen, on the board, the Cougars were definitely sitting pretty.
Lassen’s final run was scored in the bottom of the sixth inning with a home run hit by Robert Lujan.
Pitching for the Cougars was Raymond Kerr and Jack Bell.
Kerr was named the winning pitcher of the game with seven innings on the mound. He gave away 12 hits, five runs, one walk and five errors. Of the 32 batters faced, Kerr struck out five.
Bell pitched for two innings with only one walk given away. He struck out two of six batters faced.
Lassen then took on the Corsairs on April 27 with a doubleheader planned. The first game was an 8-0
Alex Valencia slides home while the Corsairs struggle to beat him there with the ball on April 27. Photo by Ashley Groganwin for Lassen, but game two ended with 14-4 on the board favoring Redwoods.
In the first game of the doubleheader, Lassen was on top from start to finish with runs scored in the first, second and sixth inning.
Inning one saw a double hit by Carlson that brought both Thomasy and McClain O’Connor in.
The second inning began with Valencia scoring from O’Connor’s double. Thomasy and O’Connor then scored a run after Frandsen hit a double.
Lassen thus entered the bottom of the sixth inning with a 5-0 leading score, but it wasn’t enough to satisfy the Cougars.
Valencia and Montgomery both scored a run in the sixth inning thanks to a single hit by Lujan. Lujan then scored Lassen’s final run of the game with O’Connor’s double to thank.
Gehrig Parks pitched the full nine innings for the Cougars with a total of six hits given away and one walk. He struck out five of 34 batters faced.
With two wins secured against the Corsairs, the Cougars became disinterested in their prey. The second game of the double header ended with Redwoods in the lead 14-4.
The game was slow scoring with the teams tied 2-2 by the end of the first inning. Lassen then stole the lead in the second inning with a run, but a Corsair run in inning three reintroduced the tie.
The Corsairs stole the lead in the seventh inning with one run, but Lassen countered with a run in the bottom of the eighth to tie up the game yet again.
Then, out of nowhere, Redwoods managed to score 10 runs in the ninth inning, leaving the Cougars too far behind to bother catching up.
Frandsen brought in the first two runs during the bottom of the first with both Daniel Perry and O’Connor tagging home.
O’Connor then earned his first RBI of the game with a sacrifice fly ball out to right field in the bottom of the second inning. Kerr saw and took the opportunity to score.
Lassen’s final run was scored by Hedberg during the bottom of the eighth inning after another sacrifice fly ball hit by O’Connor.
Even though the loss finished off conference play for the Cougars, their 17-9 record still landed Lassen a spot in the playoffs.
The Cougars’ playoff game was against Reedley College on Tuesday, May 2. Though Lassen spent a majority of the game in the lead, the Cougars ultimately lost the match with a final score of 8-7.
Lassen initially stole the lead in the third inning with two runs scored. Lassen then scored a run in the fifth, sixth and seventh inning to bring them to a 5-0 lead; however, the Reedley Tigers caught up quickly with five runs scored at once during the bottom of the seventh inning.
Lassen scored two more runs in the ninth inning to secure a 7-5 lead, but an astonishing three runs scored by the Tigers ended the game with 8-7 on the board.
During the top of the third inning, Thomasy singled to send Valencia in and O’Connor to second base. Carlson then doubled at bat to send O’Connor in to grant Lassen their initial 2-0 lead.
Kerr scored a run in the fifth inning after Thomasy tripled to left center.
Kerr then doubled during the sixth inning to bring Valencia in for Lassen’s fourth run.
At the top of the seventh, Lujan singled to shortstop and brought Carlson in for the fifth run scored by the Cougars.
The final two Cougar runs were made by Lujan and Valencia with credit granted to Thomasy’s single.
Parks and Kerr split their time on the mound for the nine innings played.
Parks gave up one hit and three walks. He struck out three of 22 batters faced.
Kerr gave up seven hits, eight runs, two walks and eight errors.
With the season officially at its end, the Cougars are bracing for finals and eager to start practice for the 2018 spring season.
