Baseball Season Ends at El Camino

The MSJC baseball team finished the season with a 29-12 overall record and made the program's first play-off appearance since 2016.  (Jerry Lee Palad-MSJC)
The MSJC baseball team finished the season with a 29-12 overall record and made the program's first play-off appearance since 2016. (Jerry Lee Palad-MSJC)

The MSJC baseball team lost two games over the weekend at El Camino in the opening round of the CCCAA Regional play-offs to bring an end to their impressive season.

In game one on Friday the Eagles, who were making their first post-season appearance since 2016, couldn't get their bats going as they lost to the Warriors 2-0.  Nolan LaChappa did all he could on the mound to keep MSJC in the game as he threw six shut out innings allowing just five hits while striking out 7.  Aidan Magana took the loss despite not giving up an earned run as he pitched the 7th and 8th.  Magana entered in the bottom of the 7th and struck out the first two hitters he faced before hitting Ethan Felix with 2 outs.  An error by the Eagles opened the door for a two run single by Elijah Tholsma that would turn out to be the only two runs of the game.  Garrett Teunissen and Nico Reyes had the only two hits of the day for MSJC.

In game two of the series the Eagles fell behind early and could never recover as they lost 13-3.  El Camino scored one run in the top of the 2nd and then added on in the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th to lead 13-0 before MSJC scored their only runs of the weekend in the bottom of the 6th.  Reyes, Christian Smith, and Alec Bressler each had an RBI for the Eagles.  Chris Scovel took the loss on the mound for MSJC as the Eagles used five pitchers to get through the contest.

The two losses eliminated the Eagles from the post-season, but can't put a damper on a strong season for MSJC.  They finished the year with an overall record of 29-12 and finished second in the Inland Empire Athletic Conference with a league record of 16-8.