The Bakersfield College Renegades finished their season with a strong performance against L.A. Pierce, winning 13-3, and earned a chance to play against L.A. Valley in a single-elimination game in the first round of the 2012 Southern California Regional Playoffs. BC was defeated 5-2 by the Monarchs and was eliminated from the playoffs on May 1.
L.A. Valley won the regular-season series against the Renegades 2-1, but BC got the victory in the final game against the Monarchs 6-5 with starting pitcher Tyler Painton on the mound.
Painton took the mound for the Renegades during the single-elimination game, and allowed five runs on eight hits though 4.1 innings.
L.A. Valley is set to face either Orange Coast College, the no. 1-ranked team in Southern California.
According to BC coach Tim Painton, the Renegades were one win away from hosting its first series of the playoffs this weekend, but because of the two-way tie with L.A. Valley, the team could not be seeded any higher.
“If we win one more conference game and finish second place outright in our conference, we’re probably sitting, waiting to play at home this weekend,” Painton said. “RPI-wise and record-wise, I think [winning one more conference game] would have dumped us into a seven or eight seed.”
Despite this, Painton was excited with how his team matched up with the Monarchs and said, “There are no surprises, because we’re really familiar with each other.”
The Renegades season was led by strong performances both up and down the lineup and from the mound.
The team finished tied for first in the state with 24 home runs, and Jordan Turner led the team with six.
Shortstop Brent Peterson was, perhaps, the team’s most consistent player through the season from the leadoff spot, batting .371 and an on-base percentage of .447.
“[Peterson] did a very, very good job over the last two weeks of conference play,” Painton said. “He was extremely hot and did a very good job for us. From the leadoff spot, your job is to get on base and allow us the opportunity to score runs, and he did a very good job with that throughout the entire year.”
On the mound, starting pitcher Tyler Painton led the charge, finishing the season 7-1 with an ERA of 1.55 with 63 strikeouts.
The team finished 24th in the state in ERA with 3.37.
“I felt like our pitching was very consistent throughout the year,” coach Painton said. “For the most part, our starting rotation did a good job. [Reliever] Ryan Stapp did a good job at the backend of the bullpen, and our pitching kept us in most games.”
BC has 16 freshmen on the team, and, at this point, it is uncertain which ones will return.
Painton said that, on paper, the team looks to have a lot of freshmen returning, but he expects several to move on, by way of the MLB draft or moving up to a Division-I school.
“What looks like a very top-heavy freshmen roster right now could be depleted in the next month and a half,” he said.