The men’s baseball team held on to a lead to beat Monterey with a final score of 9-6. LMC took the lead early and didn’t look back until the later innings when it looked dim.

Starting fast with a hit-by-pitch and two stolen bases lead to an RBI single by Khamani Blakney putting LMC first on the board. There was an attempted pickoff but the Monterey pitcher threw it too low to allow Blakney to advance to second and then third after a line out to the center fielder. 

The next batter up was Nico Torrez and he singled up the middle to score another run. Torrez advanced to third from first on a wild pitch from the opposing pitcher. Monterey’s catcher couldn’t get to the ball quick enough to keep Torrez at second. Torrez, now at third, distracted the opposing pitcher which allowed another wild pitch to occur, getting another run on the board for LMC. 

Points increased in the second as Seth Gwynn hit a solo home run to right field, just over the fence. This ended the day for the starting pitcher on Monterey’s side, as he allowed four earned runs. The beatdown didn’t stop there, as Colton Trudeau hit a single to left field, scoring two more runners and giving LMC a 6-0 lead after two innings. 

LMC starting pitcher Jack Saylor looked lights out until the fourth, as he gave up a solo home run to the first batter he faced in the fourth inning, but would not give up another the rest of the game. 

At the top of the sixth, Saylor got himself in trouble by having men on second and third with no outs. This didn’t phase him, however, as he went on to get a pop-out and two strikeouts to end the inning, pumping up the team as they went on to score three more runs in the bottom of the sixth to build their lead to 9-1.

It looked over for Monterey as they needed to get eight runs to tie the game up, but they built a small comeback after Terry Baker took over the mound for the seventh and allowed two runs to score. Sebastian Palma took over on the mound before the sac fly and allowed two more runs in the eighth to cut the lead to 9-5 via an RBI groundout and single. 

Noah Tofan took over in the ninth as he looked to close out the game without blowing the lead. Another sac fly sealed the lead of 9-6 as Tofan would strike out Cameron Estes to end the game and give the Stangs the victory.

LMC was close to blowing an eight-run lead after the sixth inning, but they kept fighting and improved their overall record to 5-3. 

The next home game for the baseball game will be on Friday Feb. 17 against Feather River College at 11:30 a.m. For more information on the baseball team, visit https://www.losmedanos.edu/baseball/index.aspx.