Comets fall flat against 49ers, 15-5
March 28, 2015
The baseball team missed an opportunity to right some of the wrongs committed in the previous game against Yuba College Tuesday, falling victim to the same fielding errors and walks, in route to a 15-5 loss Thursday at the Baseball Field.
The 49ers (15-11 overall and 7-7 in the Bay Valley Conference) won five of its last six games coming in to the bout against the struggling Comets. Including a 9-4 victory over the squad earlier in the week in which CCC (5-18 overall and 3-9 in the BVC) was ahead until the fifth inning. In that contest, two 4-run innings by Yuba (the fifth and seventh) would prove to be too much to overcome.
The Comets return to action Tuesday in San Pablo against Solano Community College at the Baseball Field.
CCC left fielder Leander Carter (1 for 5 with 2 RBI’s) and third baseman Jared Borunda (3 for 4 with 3 RBI’s) displayed some nifty glove work and a hot bat in Thursday’s contest. In the top of the third inning and already trailing 2-0, Carter tracked a fly ball into deep left field, totally ignoring the warning track and smashing into the fence to make the catch.
“I knew it was deep and would be a fence play either at the wall or off of it,” Carter said. “After I pick up where the ball is going and where the fence is all that’s left is to remember is that when I get to the track there are only three steps left until the wall. Then it’s get ready for impact.”
Trailing 6-0 going into the bottom of the seventh, CCC made its best effort to climb back into the contest. First carter grounded out to the pitcher to score Lawrence Duncan (1 for 3), followed by Borunda’s two run RBI single that scored center fielder Rome Watson (0 for 1) and Evan Ray.
The 6-3 score was as close as CCC had been since the second inning.
The Comets started the game in the field. After a dropped ball on a 49er steal attempt and a hit batsmen, CCC escaped the first inning without yielding a run.
“The difference was the mental aspect today, it was worse than it has been in the last couple of games,” Webb said. “All of the mistakes were killing our rallies.”
Comet starter Allen Ressler (0-0) showed signs of fatigue early after giving up two runs in the second inning causing CCC coach Marvin Webb to make the pitching switch to Jesse Garcia (1-1) in the fourth inning. Aside from the cold arms, inconsistent fielding continues to plague the Comet’s season.
“The game felt off from the beginning,” Comet pitcher Antonio Straughter said. “It seemed like heat drained us. By the time we had a chance to talk each other up it was too late. We can still turn it around, teams will start knocking each other off so all we have to do is pick it up and play.”
“Us not being a rah-rah team doesn’t concern me,” Comet coach Brian Guinn said. “Baseball can be a game of emotion, but it’s controlled emotion. And it’s true, some guys feed off of emotion, but I want our guys to play smart and feed off of thought.”
Coming in to spell Ressler at the worst possible time was Garcia. With two runners on base and the temperature as hot as it had been all day, the freshman allowed triple scoring the two runners.
A past ball gave Yuba a third run before the Comets were finally able to get out of the inning.
After bringing the lead to within three in the seventh inning the squad finally collapsed under the weight of the mounting bad breaks that defined their play in the game.
Two singles a double and a triple spelled 9 runs over the final two innings for Yuba College. CCC tacked on another two runs in the final inning to cement to score at 15-5 49ers Thursday at the Baseball Field.