The MSJC baseball team lost their fourth straight Inland Empire Athletic Conference game last week and now are in a battle for second place with College of the Desert.
The Eagles started the week with a non-conference home game against Allan Hancock and picked up their 24th win of the season 9-6. It was a four run bottom of the 4th inning that led MSJC to the victory. Adrian Vento had a two run single to get the scoring started in the inning, that was followed by an RBI triple from Tanner Aoki and an RBI single by Christian Smith. Julian Castro stayed unbeaten for the season on the mound as he improved to 6-0 throwing 6 complete innings allowing just one run and striking out 6.
MSJC jumped back into IEAC action on Thursday, but lost to visiting San Bernardino Valley a team they had beaten three times earlier in the year. The Eagles fell behind 7-0, but steadily made a comeback as they had closed the gap to 10-6 headed into the bottom of the 8th. In the bottom of the 8th the Eagles loaded the bases and with two outs it appeared Steven Kirtides had hit a game tying grand slam around the right field foul pole, but after a long discussion between the umpires the call was changed to a foul ball. Kirtides struck out on the next pitch and SBVC would go on to add three more runs in the top of the 9th to win 13-6. Austin Sargent, Dayton Thompson, and Aoki each drove in two runs in the loss.
Friday the Eagles played a return game with Hancock, this time on the road and in a well pitched game came out on the short end of a 3-2 score. The game was tied 2-2 through 5 innings and stayed that way until the bottom of the 9th when the Bulldogs drew a walk with the bases loaded to win the game. Dominick Lombardi and Sargent had the Eagles' RBIs in the game. Joseph Romero pitched well as the starter, but was credited with a no decision as he went 7 innings allowing just 5 hits and two runs.
The Eagles have a busy week with some key games as they make the final stretch run towards the play-offs. Tuesday MSJC will host Cerro Coso at 2 pm in San Jacinto, the Eagles won 2 of 3 in the teams series earlier this year. Thursday the Eagles will travel to College of the Desert for a critical conference match up at 2 pm and then finish the week on the road at Barstow. When the Eagles travel to Barstow they will complete a game that was halted by weather on March 23rd with the Eagles leading 4-1 in the fourth inning and then play the regularly scheduled contest.
MSJC is now 24-10 overall on the season and 13-5 in IEAC games. Here are the standings of the top five teams in the conference going into the final two weeks.
- Chaffey 18-2
- Desert 15-5
- MSJC 13-5
- Cerro Coso 9-10
- SBVC 9-11