The Bakersfield College baseball team is 2-2 to start out the Western State Conference play. The record comes after splitting a two game series against Glendale and another series against L.A. Pierce.
BC’s bats were shutout as they lost at Glendale 4-0 on Mar. 8. Bryan Maxwell gave up one run in the first and two in the sixth before being pulled for Danny Shepherd to start the eighth.
The Renegades scattered six hits in the loss and left 13 runners on base, seven of which were left in scoring position.
“Sometimes you have to tip your hat to the other guy on the other team, and their guy pitched very well. We handed them three runs,” explained Coach Tim Painton.
“Maxwell pitched very well last night and has nothing to show for it, you know we didn’t come through in situations where we had guys in scoring position. And I think a lot of that had to do with Glendale’s pitcher.”
Infielder David Pennington said of the lack of runs in the loss, “We just came out flat. We could have done a lot of things different but that game’s in the past now.”
He also went on to say, “We weren’t hitting the ball that well and the stuff we were hitting were going straight at guys. We were making them play defense too much.”
The Renegades played Glendale again the next day, where the BC pitching staff struck out 18 total batters and allowed two hits in its 4-1 win to finish with a split in the two game series.
Starting pitcher Greg Fowler struck out a total of 12, Xavier Tavorn, who came in the game in the seventh, struck out four and closer Anthony Ramirez struck out two.
Both center fielder Imaad Nuriddin and catcher Dylan Nasiatka were 2-for-4 in the game; Nuriddin also drew two walks and Nasiatka scored two runs.
Outfielder Sam Westendorf hit a double and a single, scored a run and picked up an RBI. David Pennington and Art Charles both had RBI’s as well.
“I felt like I was in my zone and I felt together as a group we competed well and it helped me out on the mound. We’ve been working on my slider, and that slider really helps my fastball,” said Fowler of his performance.
Fowler continued, “I just took it inning-by-inning, pitch-by-pitch. I was concentrating on inning four when I’m in inning three. I didn’t know how many strikeouts I had but I knew it was a lot.”
Coach Painton was beyond pleased with the play.
“Well, he was outstanding,” he said. “He commanded the zone, threw two pitches for strikes and was ahead of hitters all night.”
He went on to address the pitching as a whole.
“Fowler kind of set the tempo, he dominated his six innings, Tavorn’s two were exceptional innings and Ramirez did what we expect him to do in the ninth.”
Pennington said of the win, “We came out ready to play today, and Fowler did a great job on the mound.”
Charles started for the Renegades at L.A. Pierce and threw 6 2/3 innings with four hits in the 2-1 win.
David Pennington led off the third with a walk, where Enrique Meza bunted Pennington over to second.
Sam Westendorf hit a one-out single to drive in the runner.
BC scored again in the fifth when Joe Ramirez came on to score off a single by Andrew Letourneau.
“It felt good to come out and throw well, that’s probably the best I’ve thrown all year and it felt rally good to help the team,” said Charles about the win.
BC lost to L.A. Pierce at home in the second game of the series, 7-5.
Pierce jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the fourth and added another run in the top of the fifth after an RBI single from outfielder Zack Gilula.
In the bottom of the fifth, infielder Joe Ramirez was walked with one out and advanced to second on an error that allowed Pennington to reach first.
Second baseman Meza reached on a fielder’s choice where Pennington was thrown out at second.
Left fielder Andrew Letourneau doubled to right field to score Ramirez and move Meza to third. Westendorf grounded to short to end the inning.
The Brahamas added another run in the sixth after Iggy Wagner walked and stole second and was then brought in by David Whetstone.
Wagner came in to score again in the top of the eighth to make the score 7-1 going into the home half of the inning.
Westendorf singled after Letourneau struck out to start the inning. Nasiatka struck out to make it two outs.
After that, it started a two out rally for the Renegades. Nuriddin was hit by a pitch from Chris Corsini.
The next batter, Nick Fox reached on an error by the first baseman where Nurridin advanced to second.
Charles doubled off of a curveball that went right up the middle and drove in two runs, to make it a 7-4 ballgame. Ramirez flew out to right to end the eighth.
BC made quick work of Pierce in the top of the ninth and now looked to mount a comeback.
Pennington tripled a 2-and-2 pitch to right field.
Pinch hitter Greg Osteen grounded to third, which brought in Pennington.
Letourneau hit one back to the pitcher who threw onto first for the second out. Westendorf flew out to right to end the game.
“We didn’t do anything offensively to win a ball game,” said Painton.
“We’ve got to get better offensively, for whatever reason it seems like we’ve got a bunch of guys that have gone bad all at the same time. You can sustain one or two guys struggling but its tough when an entire lineup,” explained Painton.
Charles, who went 2-for-4 in the game spoke about the offense after the game.
“We’ can’t win games in the ninth inning, so we’ve just got to swing the bats, keep swinging it, have a better approach at the plate and just got to get in the lab,” he said. “We’ve got to work on two strike approaches and seeing the ball, hitting the ball.”
Coming up, the Renegades play Thursday, March 18 against West L.A. starting at 6 to finish that series.
Then they host the series opener against College of the Canyons at 1 p.m.