Santa Rosa Junior College Bear Cubs dropped to 21-8 overall, and 6-5 in conference play. The pouring rain subsided finally in Santa Rosa to allow the Bear Cubs and Solano to finally face one another this season. The Bear Cubs and Solano were rained out the previous week.
The Bear Cubs were in control until blowing a one run lead in the fifth inning. SRJC has been in a lot of close ball games this year; they have a 13-1 record in games decided by two runs or less this spring.
The Bear Cubs were led by the duo of Chauntel Cesna and Megan Winters. Cesna connected on her third home run of the season and Winters allowed only two runs over five innings of work for the Bear Cubs.
The games most outstanding player was Solano’s starting pitcher Shannon Mestas. Mestas allowed only three hits, three runs, with only two earned, and eight strikeouts to lead Solano to a hard fought win over the Bear Cubs.
The Bear Cubs looked as if they were cruising to a shutout victory behind the dominant pitching of Winters before on one pitch she lost her shutout and lead behind Solano’s Brittney Taglieri two run home-run in the fifth inning.
Simply put it is tough to win ball games on days where as a team you only collect three hits and muster only two runs of support.
The Bear Cubs were able to recoup and put together an impressive offensive showing in the opening game against Modesto defeating them 8-0 mainly due to Modesto committing eight errors in the field.
Besides all the choppy defensive plays by Modesto, SRJC was able to collect four extra base hits, including three doubles and a home run by Megan Stroud.
Eight runs was plenty of support as Dana Thomson cruised to five-inning shutout, collecting four strikeouts and scattering three hits.
In the second game of the double header it was a lot of the same for Modesto as they committed another four errors en route to losing to SRJC 8-2.
The offense was clicking for SRJC, as they were able to collect another three extra base hits, which included two doubles and Winters third homerun of the season.
The Bear Cubs hammered out 12 hits in the seven-inning affair; four players were able to pick up an RBI. (Winters, Bardee, Foster, and Pardoski)
The Bear Cubs hit the road and traveled to Sacramento April 8th and took on Sacramento. SRJC lost 6-2, the girls just played flat, slugging only one extra base hit.
The Bear Cubs were not able to pick up momentum dropping their second consecutive game against division rival Sierra by the margin of 8-2.
The Bear Cubs were able to hit two homeruns on the day but could not mount any offense off of Sierra starter Kalyn Pague. Pague allowed six hits but was able to escape any harm and allowed only two runs while picking up three strikeouts.
Busting out of their two-game mini slump SRJC busted out for a 12-1 victory over American River on April 12 in the first game of the double header.
The Bear Cubs executed well enough for the game to be called after the fifth inning. The Bear Cubs were able to have four players collect an RBI, with Cesna and Coirds combing for seven RBI’s.
The Bear Cubs were not able to sustain the offense in game two losing 5-3 and have dropped three out of their last four games.
The offense has been rather inconsistent with some stretches where they seem to be unstoppable and then it’s just not apparent to be their some days.
With a 24-11 record and a 9-8 mark in conference the Bear Cubs stand in fourth place in the Big 8. The talent is there to make a post season run, the question is will the Bear Cubs put it all together?
