Stangs head to regionals
baseball claims twelfth seed
Finishing their season with a loss to Laney College and a win over Contra Costa College, the Los Medanos baseball team heads into the Regional Round of the Baseball Northern Regional Championship as the 12th seed. The Mustangs will face 5th seed Mission College of Santa Clara in the first round of playoffs.
In the Bay Valley Conference, LMC fell short of taking first place after losing 4-2 to Laney at home on April 28. The Mustangs beat CCC 5-2 on the Comets’ field the following day, giving them an 18-6 record for the 2016 season.
Mission currently holds first place in the Coast-Golden Gate division with a 15-5 record, equaling the Stangs’ .750 win percentage. However — comparing individual leaders from both divisions — the Stangs have an upper hand in five out of eight categories when it comes to hitting and pitching.
Los Medanos outfielder Jonathan Allen leads the BVC with his .414 batting average, which is higher than Mission outfielder/infielder Matt Hearn’s .381 average. However, Mission’s 44 runs batted in trump LMC, who didn’t make the leaderboard. Mission’s first baseman Blake Billinger beats out the Mustangs’ catcher Ethan Utler homeruns 6 to 5 and Allen falls one stolen base short of Hearn’s 24.
Pitcher Mike Alexander of LMC leads the conference with his 1.75 earned run average and Jack Higgins holds a 2.50 ERA, both topping Mission’s top pitcher’s 2.59 ERA. Alexander is also the BVC’s leader in strikeouts with 74, followed by pitcher Jake Brandt who has 63, which tops both Mission pitchers Zayne Patino (60) and Garret Ciuk (56). LMC also leads Mission in saves from pitcher Gabe Taylor, who has notched five this season.
As a whole, Los Medanos has scored 225 runs while earning a .295 team batting average with a .366 on-base percentage while hitting 11 home runs in the course of their regular season. Mission falls short of LMC when it comes to runs with only 242, but have higher numbers across the board, with their .297 batting average, .382 on-base percentage and 15 home runs during their regular season.
These teams will face off on May 6 and 7 at Mission’s field to see who will move on to the next round to face either San Joaquin Delta College or Butte College.
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