One Bad Inning Leads to FRC Split on Opening Day
TAFT—In the world of college baseball, sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you.
On Opening Day 2022 for the Feather River College Golden Eagles, they ran roughshod over the Taft Cougars for a 12-5 win in the morning game, but then fell by double digits in the 2 pm contest to Rio Hondo 18-7 to begin their season 1-1.
The Golden Eagles continue play on their season-opening road trip with a Friday game in Bakersfield against Moorpark (10 am).
"It was good for us to get back on to the field," said head coach Terry Baumgartner. "We saw a lot of good things out of our players today. Besides the one inning where we gave up a lot of runs, our pitching was really good."
In the morning game FRC scored four runs before Taft came to the plate and used a two-home run performance from Jerry Thomas to cruise to the win.
The Golden Eagles had a pair of walks, a hit batter and a Thomas single to set the table for a bases-clearing single by Mohi Kahui to account for three of the four first inning runs. Second baseman Thomas, an All-Golden Valley Conference selection back in 2019, added solo shots in third and fifth innings to give Feather River all the runs that they would need.
For good measure, Braden Thomson ripped a two-run single in the seventh innings and Cooper Kitrel rapped an RBI single. FRC chased two more runs across the plate in the eighth without the benefit of a hit.
On the mound, starter Elijah Hinojosa was in line to get the win until running into trouble in the fifth. Drew Baumgartner came on in relief to put out the fire and went on to pitch 3.1 effective innings to claim the win. He gave up just one earned run, two hits, walked four and fanned seven.
Thomas finished the game 3-for-3 with four runs scored, three RBI, two walks and the two round trippers. Kitrel was 2-for-3 with two runs scored and two RBI. FRC had nine hits overall in the game.
In the afternoon game, the Roadrunners put up 14 runs in the fifth inning to overtake the Golden Eagles on their way to a 18-7 win.
FRC led 4-3 through four innings, thanks in part to an RBI-double from Cory McIntyre in the first and run scoring hits from Garrett Damico, Thomas and Eric Romero in the fourth.
But the roof caved in in the fifth. The Roadrunners, from Whittier, Calif., sent 23 hitters to the plate with 14 of them crossing the plate. They used just seven hits and two FRC errors to help salt the game away.
Rio Hondo finished with the 18 runs on 12 hits and were helped out with six Golden Eagle errors.
Thomas had two more hits and an RBI to finish 5-for-6 on the day. McIntyre had three hits including a pair of doubles and Damico was 2-for-4 in the nightcap for a Feather River team that pounded out 14 hits.
Rafael Flores went 4-for-5 for the Roadrunners with four RBI and a home run.
After Friday's game with Moorpark, FRC will wrap their road trip with a Saturday game at Merced.
"We need to shore up our defense the next two days," Baumgartner added. "Overall, I really like our club and am greatly looking forward to this season."