Starting pitcher and designated hitter Rocco Borrelli led the way for the Los Medanos College Mustangs baseball team as they defeated Skyline College 8-1 Friday, Jan. 26.

Borrelli was tasked as the Mustangs’ opening day starting pitcher and went 5.2 innings. He struck out six Trojan batters and surrendered just one unearned run during his outing on the mound. 

“He was a competitor today,” Mustangs’ head coach Harmen Sidhu said. “I always know when I’m going to give him the ball, whether he’s pitching or he’s hitting, I know he’s going to put together a good at-bat and he’s going to compete his butt off on the mound. When we’re put in tough situations I know he’s the guy where I don’t have to worry about him folding.” 

In the eighth inning, Borrelli came to the plate with the bases loaded and an opportunity to extend the Mustangs lead. He would hit a triple down the right-field line to knock in three of the four RBIs he had on the day. 

“I knew with the bases loaded, he didn’t wanna walk a guy,” Borrelli said. “I knew he was gonna try to get ahead early and throw strikes. When he did, I was just able to do damage.”

While the Mustangs offense produced eight runs in the final two innings, they struggled to get anything going against Skyline’s starting pitcher Cristian Padilla. Padilla also went 5.2 innings and surrendered just two base-runners while striking out five batters.

“That guy was shutting us down for a while,” Sidhu said. “He was mixing speeds and we had trouble seeing the ball out of his hand. He was doing a good job, but once we were able to get to him and get to the bullpen, I think we started having success.”

The Trojans’ lone run came in the top of the fifth inning. Borrelli appeared to get out of the inning when he struck out Skyline’s Gabriel Melara. However, the third strike got away from Mustangs’ catcher Yuto Sato and allowed Skyline’s Ben Giovannet to score. Sato would make up for his mistake and throw out Melara when he tried to steal second base shortly after. 

Earlier in the game the Mustangs failed to capitalize on a Trojans mistake in the bottom of the fourth inning when the Mustangs tallied their first hit of the game. With two outs Anthony Manuel attempted to steal home on a wild pitch but was thrown out and kept the Mustangs scoreless. 

“I wasn’t frustrated, I think it was more of just luck,” Sidhu said. “We have soft padding on our backstop and the ball hit off the one hard spot of our backstop and bounced straight back to the catcher. If you ask them the same question they know it was kind of lucky too.” 

In the bottom of the seventh, the Mustangs took the lead off a RBI fielder’s choice from Casey Threats to lead 2-1. Los Medanos would never relinquish this lead and would add six more runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to extend their lead to 8-1. 

While the Mustangs won their opening game, they split their two-game series with Skyline after falling to the Trojans 5-4 at Skyline College.