The Bakersfield College baseball team won its home tournament by beating all three opponents. They outscored all opponents 24-11 and their most notable win came in a 5-4 walk-off hit from outfielder Jon Suda against Cypress College. Cypress was ranked sixth in the state in a preseason poll.

They are currently 7-5 and wrapping up the first part of their season before starting conference play.

In the win against Cypress on Feb. 21, redshirt sophomore Marcos Reyna was on the mound for Bakersfield College in his second appearance of the season. He got off to a quick start retiring the hitters in order.

The Renegades scored one run in the second and two runs in the third off a two-run double from Ben Straka.

BC looked to be in control of the game with steady pitching before a tough top-half of the fifth inning put them behind.

Cypress sent eight batters to the plate in the fifth and scored four runs off three hits and they were aided by two errors from the BC defense.

Reyna was pulled in the seventh for closer Chris Rodriguez.

Neither team would get close to scoring again until the Renegades came up to bat in the ninth.

Riley Showers led off the ninth with a walk before stealing second on a low and outside ball to right fielder Jon Suda.

Suda then took a 1-1 pitch that dropped in right field for the game winning RBI.

After the game head coach Tim Painton was extremely pleased with the Renegades ability to pull out the win.

“Well the win was a very big win. Cypress is traditionally one of the top teams in the state,” he said. “They’ve been playing extremely well and to win it in the bottom of the ninth the way we did was a great win.

“It helps us down the road as well by just learning to continue to play the game. It’s a big win,” he said.

Suda said after the game that he felt his first at-bat of the game gave him the confidence to keep going.

“I just knew I needed to get a ball into the outfield and they were playing no doubles so I knew if I got that, that run scores no matter what,” he said.

Painton said he and Suda were discussing the situation and any other that could have come up.

“We were just talking about situations and how their pitcher has pitched people and those types of things,” he said.

“Everybody knew the situation we were in and Showers’ at-bat was as big as Suda’s, to get on and be able to steal a bag and give us the opportunity to be able to score a run,” he said.

Starter Reyna picked up a no decision on seven innings giving up seven hits and three earned runs while striking out seven batters.

“Coming into the game I didn’t feel like I had much on my fastball but after getting on the bump I felt like a completely different person,” he said.

“Well I know Cypress is a really good team and my dad gave me a lot of info on them so I knew I had to throw a lot of off-speed pitches early in the game in order to keep them off balance,” he said.

“Getting the no decision wasn’t a big deal, I went through this all through high school and freshman year here but it’s a good feeling knowing the team won instead of just me,” he said.

Reyna went on to speak about the injury he obtained last season and how it is affecting him this year.

“It feels good coming back but I’m still kind of scared of letting loose, I just know I’m a much better pitcher now that I’ve developed a cutter this year and I’m spotting up a lot more that I did my freshman year,” he said.

Painton said about his starter, “He was very good, the runs that they scored were not all his doing.

“We had a defensive lapse in one inning today and those runs are directly related to our inability to take care of the baseball. He commanded his fastball, threw his breaking ball for strikes and really did a very good job of keeping an outstanding offense in check,” he said.

The Renegades came into their home tournament after a frustrating 4-0 road loss to Merced on Feb. 15.

Bakersfield College could only gather four hits while pitcher Bryan Maxwell went seven innings, giving up nine hits and all four runs in the loss.

They opened the tournament with a 9-5 win against Reedley College on Feb. 17 with Joe Nielson on the mound. Nielson went 5.2 innings giving up four runs in the win.

Second baseman Daniel Rueger and left fielder Mike Spingola both had two RBI in the win, with Spingola going 4-for-4.

Former Renegade Nico Payan, who now plays for Reedley, went 0-for-2 in the game before a pinch-hitter was brought in for him. In the second game of the tournament, BC’s offense put up 10 runs in a 10-2 win over San Diego Mesa on Feb. 19.

David Pennington led all hitter with three RBI off two hits and Ben Straka added two as well. Left-handed pitcher Taylor Aikenhead picked up the win to improve to 2-0.

After the tournament, the Renegades lost to Allan Hancock College 6-1. Maxwell started the road game and went seven innings picking up his fourth loss of the season.

The Renegades will begin opening up conference play on the road as they travel on March 5 to Woodland Hills to take on L.A. Pierce then West L.A. on March 8 before playing at home against College of the Canyons on March 10.