Walk-Off Plunk Leads FRC Past Vikings

QUINCY--Feather River scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth without the benefit of a hit to win a wild 11-10 3C2A NorCal Regional Final game over West Valley.

Noah Carrington was dotted by a pitch with the bases loaded to send Nick Anderson trotting home with the winning run to cap a crazy afternoon at the Eagles Nest. Feather River, now with a 1-0 lead in the three-game series, will try and close it out on Saturday at noon, with a trip to the 3C2A Final Four in Irvine on the line. 

Anderson, who walked five times in the game, led off the ninth with a free pass, followed by walks to Jake Dahl and Luke Henderson to load the bases with one out. Kory Chu then worked a walk to bring in the tying run, and Carrington followed by wearing an errant Viking pitch to close the game. 

That was a sudden ending to a game that featured three ties and four lead changes. West Valley pitchers issued 13 walks in the game and Feather River batters laced ten hits, nine of them singles. 

Feather River trailed 3-0 before scoring three times themselves in the third. Legend Lancaster had a two-run single to highlight the rally. FRC took their first lead in the fourth on RBI-singles by Josh Davies and Walker DesRosier.

Trailing 9-5 in the seventh, the Golden Eagles struck for four runs to even the score. Davies and Lancaster each drove in runs with singles. But the Vikings added the potential winning run in the eighth to take a 10-9 lead, which carried into the fateful ninth inning. 

While the Dirty Birds worked the counts for the winning runs, prior to that Jayden Andrade played a key role with shutting down West Valley over the final 1.2 innings. Andrade kept the Vikings off the scoreboard, allowing only two hits and he walked just one to pick up the win. 

DesRosier and Lancaster had two hits each, and Lancaster drove in four runs. Davies had three hits, scored three times, had two RBI's and a double. 

Heading into Saturday's showdown, the Golden Eagles are now 35-13, while the Vikings are 32-14-1. If West Valley wins tomorrow's contest, the two squads will play again on Sunday at noon.