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Mohammad Najimi

Los Medanos outfielder Nico Torrez watches a pitch by the Laney Eagles pitcher be called a ball by the home plate umpire.

The Los Medanos baseball team stole the victory against Laney College with a final score of 6-5, after struggling most of the game. It was a back-and-forth contest that Laney controlled after the first inning but then collapsed in the final two.

In the first two innings, there was plenty of action that led to a total of six runs for both teams. In the top half of the inning, Aaron Nathanson of Laney College hit a single, scoring Ben Saitz and giving them a 1-0 lead. After a double by Tyler Shonnard, Kayne Moody hit a blooper into right field that dropped, scoring both runners and extending their lead to 3-0.

In the bottom of the inning, the Mustangs started the comeback after Seth Gwynn was hit by a pitch from Laney pitcher Will Seslar. Gwynn stole second while Bubba Rocha walked. Both runners stole second and third when Laney third baseman Deickrimar Orta threw the ball into right field causing Gwynn to score and Rocha to advance to third. With a runner on third, Rocco Borelli hit a single, scoring Rocha from third cutting Laney’s lead down to 3-2 after the first inning.

After a 1-2-3 inning by Colton Trudeau in the top of the second, Nico Torrez came up to the batter box and smashed the ball past the left-center wall tying the game at three going into the third inning. 

In the top of the third inning after a double by Marcus Money when the outfielder got blinded by the sun causing an error, Nathanson hit a double scoring in Money recapturing a 4-3 lead. 

The next few half innings were quiet as the score stayed the same going into the fifth inning. 

In the top of the fifth inning, after Nathanson walked and Shonnard was hit by a pitch, Moody whacked a ball through the middle scoring Nathanson and extending their lead to 5-3. The next couple of innings were quiet as well as both teams couldn’t muster a batter to third base.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, Mustangs tied the game at five as Gwynn doubled and was brought home by Pierce hitting a single. Rocha hit a ground ball to third base, but the throw to first was thrown out of reach causing both runners to advance bases. After Michael Weber walked, loading the bases, Borelli hit the ball towards Saitz, but when he threw the ball to third base trying to get the lead runner out, a collision happened causing a stoppage of play with the runner safe at third and a run-scoring tying the game at five. 

Orta was down seemingly dazed from the collision as Brian Powelson, LMC’s athletic trainer, speaks to Orta trying to figure out what happened. In case of an actual injury, Laney’s manager took Orta out of the game and replaced him with Michael Gormley at third base.

The inning ended after Kris Leffle grounded into a double play keeping the score tied at five after seven innings.

After a quick top of the eighth inning, Dareyen Tolentino took over on the mound for Wil Seslar and pitched a quick inning to take the game into the ninth inning tied at five. In the top of the ninth inning, Kenny Esposito took over on the mound for Colton Trudeau and also pitched a quick half-inning giving LMC a chance to walk it off in the bottom of the ninth.

The first batter in the bottom half of the ninth inning was Ryan Pierce and he drove a baseball over the left-center field giving the Mustangs an incredible comeback victory over the Laney Eagles extending their overall record to 26-10 on the season. 

The final line for Colton Trudeau was 8 innings pitched allowing five earned runs, five hits, 5 strikeouts, 2 walks, and throwing 107 pitches.

This victory keeps the Mustangs in first place in the division with a one-and-a-half lead over Marin heading into the final four games of the season.