The Bakersfield College baseball team has clinched a playoff spot after an 18-8 win April 29 in L.A. Mission.
The win puts BC’s record in conference at 13-8, a second-place finish in the Western State Conference behind L.A. Valley.
The Renegades scored 18 runs on 17 hits in the game.
Sam Westendorf was 3-for-5 with five RBI and two home runs, his first and second of the season. Shortstop Joe Ramirez also hit his first homer of the season, and Art Charles hit one giving him six on the season.
Pitcher Bryan Maxwell picked up the win going seven innings, giving up eight hits and two earned runs.
BC will travel to Huntington Beach to play No. 6 Golden West in a best-of-three series May 7-8, the latter being a doubleheader if necessary.
Renegades’ coach Tim Painton spoke about being in the playoffs.
“Well, obviously we’re very excited,” he said. “We went from being 10-9 to being 24-12. We played extremely well from basically the spring break period on to put ourselves in this position.
“Our expectations are high. To get to this point and have to grind like we did the last three of the season, we’ve done what we needed to do to get there.”
BC finished the season with one of the highest Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) but because it didn’t outright win the conference, the Renegades are seeded 11th.
“We hurt ourselves with a loss a week before the season was over, and we’re just happy to be in,” Painton said. “Seeding doesn’t really matter at this point anyway. You have to win two out of three baseball games anyway.”
Painton spoke of an earlier-season meeting, in which BC split a two-game series with Golden West.
“We’ve played Golden West earlier this season, which seems like it was two years ago,” he said.
“We’re just going to try and match up against their hitters the best that we can and we’ll make adjustments accordingly. I know that we’ve gone through our share of injuries, and they have as well,” he said.
“Typically how they play the game and how we play the game doesn’t change. I think it’s a good matchup. You have two pretty good teams.
“We’re going to go down there and compete and hopefully end up on the good side of things,” he added.
Recently, BC had 10 players earn Western State Conference honors. Outfielder Sam Westendorf, catcher Dylan Nasiatka, pitcher Bryan Maxwell and relief pitcher Xavier Tavorn were all named to the WSC first team.
Second-team honors went to starter Greg Fowler, outfielder Andrew Letourneau, and infielder David Pennington, outfielder Imaad Nuriddin, first base/pitcher Art Charles, and first baseman/designated hitter Nick Fox all earned honorable mentions.