Strong bakes Bako in super regional opener

2016 GROSSMONT COLLEGE BASEBALL

 

By Chris Davis
© East County Sports.com

 

EL CAJON (5-14-16) — Fifth seed Grossmont College took control of the best-of-three CCCAA Baseball Super Regionals with a game one 5-2 victory at Noel Mickelsen Field on Friday (May 13) behind a stellar outing by ALAN STRONG.

 

The Santana High grad threw seven innings of three hit ball while striking out 13 Bakersfield Renegades (28-11) batters.  Offensively, MICHAEL DIFFLEY (Granite Hills) set the tone with a pair of hits in the game.

 

After both teams went three up and three down in the first inning, the offenses got rolling.

 

Ninth seed Bakersfield scored their first run of the day in the top of the second.  Brock Hallum singled to left field.  He was sacrificed up to second courtesy of Harrison Smith.  Jacob Herrera’s RBI single up the middle gave BC the 1-0 lead.

 

Grossmont (30-10) came back in the bottom of the third.  With one out, Diffley got his first hit of the day, a single through the left side.  After a fly out, the Griffins put Diffley in motion.  TANNER PERRY (Steele Canyon) hit a double all the way to the left center field wall.  Diffley never slowed down and was touching home plate to tie the score, when the shortstop was turning around after catching the throw from the center fielder.

 

The Renegades came right back to take a 2-1 lead.  It was done on a no doubt about it home run to right field by Academic All-State member Hanz Harker (3rd of the season).  Hallum walked immediately following that home run.  He was caught stealing during Smith’s at bat, an at bat the ultimately finished with Smith striking out.  After another walk, Strong took care of Harley Lopez on a strikeout.

 

Grossmont came back with a four run sixth inning.  ROBERT BOSTEDT (Granite Hills) started the inning with a single to right field.  TRAVOR BEARD (San Clemente) walked to push Bostedt to second.  JUSTIN MITCHELL (Granite Hills) reached via an error by the third baseman allowing him to go to second.  Beard would end up on third after the error.  Bostedt scored to tie the game at 2-2.  After a strikeout, JUSTEN BURKEY (San Pasqual) hit an RBI groundout to plate Beard and move Mitchell to third.  Diffley then came up and launched a laser to left field (5th of the season) for a two-run homer and a 5-2 Griffin lead.

 

The two teams will face off in game two of the series at 1:00 p.m. today.  Grossmont will be the designated visiting team.  Should Bakersfield win game two, the series would go to a deciding game three on Sunday.  Game time on Sunday would be 12:00 noon.

 

Elsewhere in the Super Regionals:

With the top two seeds out in Southern California, the top seed remaining is Golden West (3rd seed) hosted 18 seed Riverside.  Golden West fell behind immediately as Riverside scored twice in the top of the first.  The Rustlers cut that lead in half with a run in the bottom of the first.  In the third, Riverside scored another two runs to take a 4-1 lead.  Golden West scored four in the bottom of the third to take a 5-4 lead.  The Tigers put their third two spot up in the seventh to retake a 6-5 lead.  GWC scored once in the bottom of the eighth to tie it at 6-6.  Not being able to take of things in regulation, the teams went to extras.  Golden West scored the winning run with two outs via a wild pitch.  Golden West leads 1-0.

 

Fourth seed Cypress was shutout by Fullerton, 5-0.  The Hornets were the recipients of a complete game nine-hit, 10 strike out performance by Randall Ortiz (9-2).  The victory by Fullerton gives them a 1-0 lead.

 

In a match-up of the six versus seven seeds, a six-run third proved to be the difference between Cuesta and Chaffey.  Cuesta leads 1-0.

 

All four Southern California series will continue on Saturday (May 14) at 1:00 p.m.

 

 

Bakersfield  2

Grossmont  5

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