The Bakersfield College men’s baseball team is off to a 6-1 start, after beating Golden West College 12-7 on Feb. 10, for its fourth consecutive victory. The lost dropped Golden West to 3-4 on the season, including losing three of its last four with a two game losing streak.
Golden West struck first, scoring two runs in the first inning before BC came roaring back in the bottom of the second inning scoring nine runs, including a two run homerun by outfielder Jordan Turner.
“We didn’t take care of the baseball very well in the first inning,” said BC’s coach Tim Painton, when asked how his team got down early in the game. “They’re a good hitting team, they’re very good ball club and to bounce back, you don’t have nine run innings very often and we were able to put some extra base hits together to kind of out the game out of reach.”
Jordan Turner capped off the second inning with four RBIs and a two run homer, going 2-for-2. BC also got back-to-back triples in the inning by outfielder Cole Hallum and third baseman Luc Pomales.
Golden West left-hander pitcher Quentin McGrath was chased off the mound early in second inning after giving up six earned-runs in the first two innings, including eight in the first inning.
The Rustlers didn’t go away quietly, scoring three runs in the third inning before BC answered with two in the bottom of the third inning and took a 12-5 lead. The Renegades, allowing four runs and four hits in four innings, also chased Golden West right-hander pitcher Tanner Brown off the mound early.
Painton thought his hitters did a great job offensively to put together great at-bats. BC’s right-hander pitcher Brad Lindsley pitched six innings, giving up 10 hits and two earned-runs. BC’s defense struggled catching the ball, picking up three errors which resulted in six unearned-runs during Lindsley’s time on the mound.
“It was ok,” Painton said when asked about his team’s pitching performance in the game. “Our defense hurt us early in the ball game, which extends pitch counts for pitchers and they have a tendency to lose focus in long innings,” he said. “It was just average, it was OK today, it wasn’t great but obviously good enough to win so we’ll take that.”
The win extended BC’s win streak to four, BC’s only loss of the early season came Feb. 3, against College of Sequoias, when the Renegades fell 6-1, including five errors. Since then BC has been on a batting tear, scoring 37 runs on their four game win streak.
The Renegades’ next game will be Feb. 14, on Valentine’s Day at Allan Hancock. BC defeated the Bulldogs back on Feb. 2.