Sometimes it’s better to be luckier than good. The SRJC baseball team was both and because of that they are heading to the State Final Four. SRJC made the big step by defeating San Joaquin Delta 5-1 to finish one of the two Nor Cal finals undefeated. Two of its three wins were over fellow Big 8 member San Joaquin Delta.
Four of the five run SRJC were unearned. San Joaquin Delta committed one error in the second and two in the seventh. The first error came with two outs in the second and scored a run. It would be the only run scored until the bottom of the seventh when SRJC scored four to put things away.
The first run of the inning was the only earned run SRJC scored. It came in after Siosi Poti and Ryan Xepoleas sandwiched singles around the first out. Chasa Stafford drove it in with a ground out and reached base on error number two for San Joaquin Delta. After the second out was made, another error scored two more runs and kept the inning going long enough for Stephen McElroy to drive in the last run with a single.
So the luck was getting the help for the Delta defense. The good was the pitching of Bryan Bynum, who pitched eight shutout innings before being pulled after hitting the first two batters of the ninth. He equaled his longest outing of the season and raised his record to 4-0.
Tyler Sanders came in and got the first batter he faced to hit into a double play. Although he then gave up a RBI single to end the shutout bid, he got the third out and sends the Bear Cubs on its way to Fresno City College for the Final Round of this State Championship test.
SRJC will meet Cypress College in the first game of the final four Friday at noon. The other two teams, Feather River and Fullerton will meet in the second game at 6 pm. The double elimination tournament for a state championship will have three games on Saturday and at least one game on Sunday.
BAD NEWS…GOOD NEWS
Hours after the Sonoma State Baseball team lost in the CCAA Championship Game, it was confirmed the season isn’t over yet.
So let’s go with the good news.
For the fifth time in seven years the Sonoma State baseball team has made the NCAA Division II playoffs. There are a lot of similarities and this past weekend about these playoffs.
No. 1—the Sonoma State baseball team will be playing at the same place as the school’s softball team did in its NCAA stay last weekend. That is at Dixie State College in St. George, Utah.
No.2 —The team they are playing they remember well. Sonoma State is a No. 2 seed and will meet No. 5 Cal State Los Angeles. It will be the fourth straight game SSU will play against CSLA.
That is where it turns back to the bad news. CSLA won the last two games to steal the CCAA Post Season tournament. On Sunday the score was 7-1. That made the combine score of the two games of 22-4.
That is enough of that.
Sonoma State will meet Cal State Los Angeles in the first game of the Western Regional Thursday at 2 pm.
My email address is jacpasquini@comcast.net