Panthers’ strong pitching and a seven-run inning stalls the Tigers in a 12-1 win

The men’s baseball team at Sacramento City College extended their winning streak to seven games, defeating the Reedley College Tigers 12-1 on Thursday, Feb. 12 at Union Stadium in Sacramento, with lights-out pitching and taking advantage of opportunities in a seven-run fourth inning. 

The City College Panthers started the scoring with a two-run first inning. Ethan Groves started the bottom of the first, with a walk and a stolen base. Eddie Fines followed up with a double to left field, which was slightly misplayed and dropped near Tigers left fielder Owen Lindstrom, that scored Groves for the first run of the game and then later stole third. Jackson Norton lined a hard-hit single up the middle to score Fines and get ahead of the Tigers early. 

The Panthers’ never gave up the lead. Norton gave the team even more momentum in the bottom of the third inning, with a hard hit high-pop fly that carried over the left field fence for a two-run homerun. 

“I was previously late on the fastball in my first at bat. So I knew coming into the second, I was going to get a lot more fastballs, so I just stayed ready for it and see what happens,” said Norton about his plan for his second at bat.

The Tigers’ pulled their starting pitcher Reece Van Alen going into the fourth inning. And Kaden Welch entered the game. The Panthers Sam Marr started the inning with a walk, and Kaden Isola singled to center field. Ben Kreizenbeck grounded out to third for the first out of the inning but advanced the runners. Ethan Grove then flew out to center field for the sacrifice fly and the second out, but scored Marr. 

The inning snowballed from there. Cody Ferrante singled to center, scoring Isola, base hit for fines, Norton walked to load the bases and two runs were scored after Hayden Shoup and Brenden Murphy walked. The Tigers put in another pitcher, Luke Trukki, who also did not have much control out of the bullpen and hit the first batter he faced, to score another run for the Panthers. 

The Tigers’ bleeding didn’t stop just there. The next at bat Isola, flies a weak fly ball to right fielder Auston Sharp, who slightly overran the ball and it falls off the end of his glove for two more runs for the Panthers. The next at bat finally ends the bleeding and is a fly out to first base to end the seven run inning. The Panthers took every opportunity that was given to them.

The Panthers shut down the Tigers offense all day. The only score for the Tigers was in the top of the fifth inning. A walk was followed with two easy outs, but a wild pitch and passed ball left the runner at third who was brought in by a Mark-Anthony Carroll single up the middle. Starting pitcher Russ Pettis threw five strong innings, striking out nine and only allowing three hits, which were mostly soft contact.

When asked about his favorite pitch in his repertoire for the day Pettis said, “Probably my slider, I was spinning it pretty good today to all of the righties.”

Kyler Benton followed with three scoreless innings and only allowed one hit. Garrett Valdez closed the game for the Panthers with an easy eight pitch inning.