Sports

Falcons soar above Mustangs

Brendan Cross, [email protected]|February 26, 2015

With the conference schedule now under way, the Los Medanos College Mustangs could not start it off with a bang as they were thwarted by their Bay Valley division rival, the Folsom Lake College Falcons, 4-2.

The Falcons jumped out to an early 1-0 lead as catcher Josh Criswell, who fell to an 0-2 count with runners on second and third with two outs, looked at three straight balls in the dirt, the third of which skidded passed LMC catcher Joey Lingenfelter to the backstop that allowed a run to score. Mustang starting pitcher Brian Womack settled down from there, getting out of the inning only allowing the one unearned run.

In the bottom of the fifth, LMC was able to tie the game up with some small ball. Designated hitter Zach Thornton led the inning off with a walk and was pinch-run for with Grant Dodge, who subsequently stole second. This brought Lingenfelter to the plate who chopped one to third base but reached on an error as the ball was bobbled by Falcons infielder Zach Rogers.

Then Freshman Jeremiah Francis made the miscue hurt as he came to bat and singled in LMC’s first run.

The tie was broken the very next inning, however, as Folsom Lake used a lead-off error to propel them to a three-run inning that busted the game open 4-1. LMC was able to scrounge up another run in the bottom of the inning that chased Falcons starting pitcher Will Felton out of the game. The RBI single by Dodge was the last LMC hit of the game as relievers Alex Perez and Zach Reid pitched a perfect final three innings as the latter struck out three while earning his first save of the season.

Mustangs Head Coach Anthony D’Albora commented on the quiet bats of his team.

“We just have to take away that we gotta be better offensively, we didn’t barrel enough balls today and that’s something we have to be able to do all the time,” said D’Albora.

Falcons Head Coach Rich Gregory said he felt good about their conference win and had high praise for the LMC pitchers.

“I think they are a quality team, they’ve got good arms on the mound,” said Gregory.

The Mustangs next home game and third conference game is March 5 at 2 p.m. against Yuba College.