Bakersfield College’s baseball team is preparing to go into Western State Conference play after going 8-4 in the early part of its season. The Renegades’ most recent win came on Feb. 25 against Moorpark, in which they won 17-5.
BC’s offense started off fast, getting out to a 6-3 lead after three innings.
In the fourth, the Renegades rallied with two outs to add to the lead. Outfielder Sam Westendorf hit a double scoring Nick Fox from second. David Pennington brought Westendorf in with a double of his own.
The next batter, Riley Showers was walked and then second baseman Daniel Rueger singled to bring in Pennington.
Then, Imaad Nuriddin drew a walk, which then loaded the bases. Infielder Joe Ramirez flew out to left ending the inning.
After getting caught between third and home, Dylan Nasitaka fell down and was tagged out on the base path, where he sprained his ankle. Nasitaka walked off without a problem but didn’t come out for the fifth, where Brian Haney was his replacement.
Anthony Ramirez came out in the seventh and finished out the game.
Westendorf went 5-for-5 in the game, three of which were doubles, and had 5 RBI in the game.
“Today was kind of an accumulation of the last few days for me. I’ve been taking good swings in batting practice and just working on a couple different things and today it all worked out for me,” Westendorf said.
“They were going after me and I saw a lot of fastballs, I just did my best being aggressive,” he said.
Art Charles, who had two hits, said, “We came put here with a plan, we went up to the plate aggressive and handled business.”
Bakersfield College played a doubleheader against Moorpark and Oxnard on Feb. 20.
In the first game, BC beat Moorpark 8-1.
Renegades pitcher Bryan Maxwell threw 121 pitches and allowed three hits over nine innings to pick up the win.
Coach Tim Painton was very pleased with Maxwell’s outing, which he felt was a big key to the victory, “I felt Maxwell kind of set the tempo, he struck out 12 and didn’t walk anybody.”
Maxwell credited the defense behind him as a reason for his success on the mound that game.
“I always come out trying to throw strikes because we have a really good defense, balls in play are usually outs,” Maxwell said.
“Nasitaka called a really good game mixing up pitches and keeping them off balance,” he said.
The Renegades’ eight runs came off the 13 hits from the offense.
In the second game, the Renegades led Oxnard 6-3 going into the top of the fifth.
The Condors had a productive fifth inning in which they tied the score at 6.
Oxnard went on to take the lead 8-7 with the Renegades’ only run coming from catcher Dylan Nasitaka’s seventh inning home run.
BC brought in closer Anthony Ramirez to hold Oxnard in the ninth. Ramirez made quick work of the side as he retired Oxnard’s 4, 5, 6 hitters in order.
After Nasitaka flew out to right, Charles singled to start a rally.
Fox singled to move Charles to second. The next batter, third baseman David Pennington, brought in the game tying run and moved Fox over to third.
Westendorf and pinch-hitter Colin Jackson both struck out to end the inning taking the game into extras.
Oxnard got two hits in the tenth but failed to bring in the runner in scoring position as it left two men on base. The top of the order for BC struck out in the tenth.
The Condors didn’t score again in the eleventh.
Charles doubled to start off the eleventh, with Fox drawing a walk right after.
After fouling off two sacrifice bunt attempts, Pennington hit a sacrifice fly to move Charles over to third.
After a walk to pinch-hitter Greg Osteen to load the bases, outfielder Westendorf drew a walk on a full count to get the game winning RBI.
Following the 9-8 win, Charles spoke of the double he hit in the eleventh.
“I had a little bloop hit in the infield, shoot I’ll take that and I ended up scoring off that.”
He went on about the hit to say, “It felt amazing, I told myself, the team needs you, anything’s going to help.”
Ramirez, who picked up the win, was looking to give BC a chance, “I was just giving my hitters the opportunity to come in and get the runs so we could get the win. I was trying to establish my fastball inside and work with my slider away,” he said.
After sitting at a 7-2 record, BC lost to Moorpark on the road 7-2 and to Merced at home 14-2. The Renegades gave up 21 runs and had four errors over the two games.
Painton said of the loss, “Well obviously we struggled a little bit so the most important thing is to just get back on the right side of things.”
Nuriddin also said, “We kind of didn’t come together as a team and make the adjustments we needed both pitching wise and hitting wise. We lost the zone pitching and just didn’t come through as a team and finish off team like we should have.”
The Renegades will begin conference play on March 6 with a road game at Glendale.
They play Glendale at home three days later on March 9.