City College’s baseball team suffered its third loss this season, after falling short Saturday in the ninth inning by one run.
The Panthers came into the game undefeated at home and in conference play, looking for a sweep over the Santa Rosa Junior College Bear Cubs.
Santa Rosa earned an early lead in the second inning on a base hit by catcher Spencer Neve. City College responded by tying the game on a triple by lead-off man Jared James in the third.
Santa Rosa scored a pair of runs in the sixth, followed by one more run in the seventh. The team went into the bottom of the ninth leading 4-1. However, City College did not go down easily.
Pinch-hitter Austin Spainhour singled with one out, and that got a rally started. He advanced to third on a double by James, to score on an infield hit by pinch hitter Timothy Hall. James scored as well.
With the bases loaded and two outs, Nelson Muniz hit a fly ball to shallow left centerfield that looked like it was going to fall. Santa Rosa left-fielder Dane Erbst darted in, and made a spectacular diving catch to end the game. Santa Rosa won 4-3.
The win went to Brett Obranovich, who is now 4-0. The loss went to Gabe Araj, now 3-1, and the save went to Anthony Bender. This was Bender’s fourth save of the year.
City College falls to 16-3 on the year and 5-1 in league play.
Read more Panthers’ baseball team statistics at http://sccpanthers.losrios.edu/baseball.htm.
