Golden Eagles Drop Slugfest in Regular Season Finale

QUINCY--The bad news is that the Feather River College baseball nine dropped their regular season finale on Thursday afternoon in Quincy, 11-7, to Lassen College. It was the first loss of the season at home for the Golden Eagles, and the setback put a halt to their nine-game winning streak.

The good news? That's not how the 2022 season will end.

Feather River's campaign will continue into the postseason next weekend when they host a CCCAA playoff series in Quincy. The Golden Eagles will find out who is coming to visit on Sunday. Regardless, the playoff series will include a Friday (May 6) afternoon game and at least one contest on Saturday in the best-two-of-three series.

Astoundingly, today's loss was just the second this entire spring in GVC play, and the first since March 17 against Butte. FRC went 23-2 in conference games, taking the crown by five games over Butte. Lassen finished in third at 17-8 and are 27-13 overall.

The Golden Eagles will take a 32-8 overall record into the postseason.

Today's game will be a distant memory by then, although the details are many in a game that featured a lot of action and plenty of runs. The 11 plate crossings by the Cougars are the most that the Golden Eagles have given up since that March 17 loss to Butte (13-7).

And Lassen did most of that late in the game.

Earlier, it looked like Feather River would cruise to yet another conference and home victory. They put a four-spot on the board in the first inning, thanks in part to a two-run single by Jake Madson and a two-run triple by Garret Damico. Through six innings, FRC's lead was 7-2 as the hosts had plenty of offense and almost a different pitcher every inning kept Lassen scoring to a minimum (FRC would end up using 10 pitchers total).

But things unraveled for the Golden Eagles beginning in the sixth inning. The Cougars scored four times in that inning on three hits and then duplicated that again in the seventh to take a 10-7 lead, leaving FRC to play catch up. But Feather River bats went mostly silent after that as Cougar pitcher Branson Chapple shut them down over the final three innings, allowing only three hits while fanning three.

Feather River had 13 hits in the game, including three by Cory McIntyre. McIntyre went 8-for-11 in the two games this week against the Cougars. FRC also had two hits each today from Cooper Kitrel, Damico, Ryan Gray, Ryan Blanchard and Madson.

The No. 8 state ranked Golden Eagles (third highest ranked team in the North) will await their postseason fate on Sunday, as will No. 19 ranked Lassen.