Golden Eagles Take Hot Start to Sacramento

After what was basically a perfect start to the 2025 baseball season, Feather River will take its 4-0 record and a pile of impressive statistics to Sacramento this week for a bigger test.

The Golden Eagles will take on Sacramento City College in a Thursday twinbill that starts at noon (note schedule change) and will then face American River on Friday in a 2 pm single game. The game against SCC matches two teams that met a year ago in the CCCAA NorCal Super Regional semifinals. The Golden Eagles and Panthers split games in the three-team tournament, but Sacramento won the advancement game and moved to the NorCal finals (falling to Delta).

"Our schedule gets tougher the next two weeks as we play five straight games against the Big 8 Conference, which is year in and year out one of the best conferences in the North," said head coach Terry Baumgarter. "This weekend Sac City and American River will provide us with a tough challenge and they make you play your best or else we won't come out on top. We are definitely looking forward to being challenged the next two weekends."

On February 6-7, the Golden Eagles will be at Sierra and will take on San Mateo on the 7th as well.

But first before we get back on the bus, let's bask in the glow of last weekend a bit.

Feather River rolled to three wins over Taft and Merced by the combined score of 56-10. FRC took out Taft over the course of two days 11-1, 13-3, and 23-3, and then took down Merced on their way back to Quincy, 9-3.

The Golden Eagles averaged 14 runs per game. They sport a red hot .412 team batting average with five home runs, eight doubles and three triples. 17 different players have driven in at least one run. Freshman Kory Chu is hitting .556 with seven RBI, Zane Denton is at .474, and Dylan Marx is hitting .444 with six RBI.

The pitching numbers are equally impressive. The Golden Eagles have a team ERA of 1.85, and in 34 innings they have allowed just 19 hits and have struck out 44. 13 different players have already toed the rubber for Coach Baumgartner.

"We played pretty good in our first weekend of game action," he understated. "We were able to be consistent in all three phases of every game with pitching, defense, and creating an offense. We were also afforded the opportunity to play a lot of guys and that always helps early in the season, so we can determine how much depth we have on our team. We had a lot of fun and played the game the right way, as our guys played hard all weekend." 

One other bonus of the weekend was Baumgartner pocketing the 500th win of his Feather River career in the first game of his 18th season. The longtime Golden Eagle coach is now 503-189 during his time in Quincy.

"Getting win 500 was a great way to start the season," he said. "I have been extremely blessed to have very good players and great coaches come through the FRC baseball program during my time here. The wins wouldn't be possible without the players, coaches, campus community, the Quincy community, and my family who all play a huge part in our program. It also helps to have great support from our FRC administration and a special thanks to our former Athletic Director, Merle Trueblood, for hiring me back in the summer of 2007. I am looking forward to many more successful seasons at FRC."