The Comets (5-11, in the Bay Valley Conference, 9-17 overall) worked hard to try to pick up a win off of second place Los Medanos College (13-3 in the BVC, 19-9 overall) on Thursday at the Baseball Field.

Contra Costa struggled to drive runners in when they had players on base, which seemed to be a problem, as CCC couldn’t come up with the victory, losing 7-2.

On the contrary, the Comets outhit the second-best team in the BVC 10-9. The Comets are hungry to string together more wins against top-ranked teams.

Comet pitcher Jake Dent pitched through six innings allowing just one two-run home run off the bat of LMC third baseman Antone Self, and a single by designated hitter Jake Hom, which scored right fielder Jared Ambuehl, also Mustangs.

Other than that, Dent managed to keep the Comets in the game, only trailing by two runs (3-1) through the sixth inning.

In the top of the third, the Comets caught a LMC base-runner taking a large lead, and were able to get him in a rundown, which ended with Dent throwing the runner out to first baseman Allen Ressler for the 1-3 play.

Baseball coach Brian Guinn made a trip out to the mound in the fourth inning to calm down and help the infield regain their focus.

“Dent threw the ball well. He did what we asked him to do, and pitched well through six innings,” Guinn said. “You have to tip your hat to a good game.”

Two thirds of the way through the game one thing was clear: LMC pitchers were pitching low, because they were getting a lot of grounders, while the Comets’ pitching was leaving pitches a little higher, because the Mustangs were hitting more line drives.

After it was clear that the Comets weren’t scoring any runs, Guinn put on the green light for the base runners. The only difference in the game was that the Mustangs got hits when it mattered, but the Comets tried to advance runners by using their speed, and testing LMC catcher Ethan Utler’s arm to second base.

Although the Comets struggled to bring runners across home plate, there was a solid half inning in the sixth where shortstop Jamal Rutledge made all three outs to retire the side. He got two grounders and one pop up. “Games like that don’t come around that often,” Rutledge said.

The eighth inning proved plentiful for the Mustangs, while they surged ahead and added on four more runs. Utler homered, and there were a total of three RBI’s for Los Medanos in the eighth.

Johnny Velasco picked up one more stolen base out of three attempts, increasing that number to 11 so far this season, and scored one of CCC’s two runs for the day. In addition, Comet third baseman Trevor Tachis had a good game and got two at bats. “I played well today and picked up my ninth base hit of the season,” Tachis said.

Comet outfielder Evan Ray’s double ended up resulting in one more run, but the game eventually came to a halt after that.

With eight more games left in their conference, the Comets look forward to playing Napa Valley College on April 12 at 2:30 pm in Napa.