After eliminating San Joaquin Delta, the Santa Rosa Junior College baseball team swept Folsom Lake in a best-of-three series at home Friday and Saturday.
Following the super regionals win, the Bear Cubs will face off against Sierra College in regional finals for a shot at a state championship appearance.
Game 1
By Oliver Kindt
SRJC played its only close game of the playoffs thus far, beating Folsom Lake 5-4 in Game 1 behind a four-run rally in the first inning.
An RBI double by designated hitter J.T. Summers brought in the first run, followed by a single by first baseman Josh Martin and a double by second baseman Joe Brown to drive home two more. Shortstop Caze Derammelaere capped off the rally with an RBI single up the middle to give the Bear Cubs a 4-0 lead.
Russell Freedheim started on the mound for the Bear Cubs and pitched two scoreless innings before getting into a bit of trouble in the third. He allowed two hits including an RBI double but held the lead at 4-1.
Freedheim finished the day with one run on two hits and one walk with two strikeouts in three innings of work.
Jordan Giacomini took over for Freedheim in the fourth and quieted the Folsom Lake offense early on, only allowing one hit and no walks through his first three innings.
The Bear Cubs added an insurance run in the fifth inning on an RBI single by catcher Mason Cox.
Giacomini started to unravel in the seventh inning, hitting two batters and giving up a single to load the bases with two outs. He hit his third batter of the inning to bring home one run before allowing a two-run double to cut the lead to 5-4.
He induced a ground ball for the third out to escape the inning with the lead intact.
Giacomini pitched a clean eighth inning before closer and Big 8 save leader Raul Valdivia came on for the ninth.
Giacomini’s final line was three runs on three hits, one walk and three hit batters with four strikeouts.
Valdivia walked the first batter in the ninth before getting a strikeout and a double play to slam the door and seal the 5-4 win.
Game 2
By Taylor Amador
Freshman pitcher Luke Dillon started the game for the Bear Cubs and the Folsom Lake bats got to him early. He allowed two first-inning runs on a walk and two hits, though Folsom Lake’s 2-0 lead was short lived.
The Bear Cubs answered immediately in the second inning. Derammelaere and Cox both walked to open up the inning, followed by an RBI double off the bat of freshman third baseman Tyler Nordyke to bring home Derammelaere. Freshman center fielder Cooper Wood followed with a walk of his own to load the bases for the Bear Cubs.
Summers drew the fourth walk of the inning to bring home Cox. Martin followed by slapping a single up the middle to bring home Nordyke and Wood. Brown drew the fifth Bear Cubs walk of the inning and Summers scored on a wild pitch to make the game 5-2 in the second inning.
“[The inning] was huge because it builds confidence with our guys. You put up a five spot right after they put up a two. It just adds fuel for our energy,” assistant coach Tom Francois said.
Freshman pitcher Evan Sandoval replaced Dillon in the second and restored order for the Bear Cubs, going two shutout innings while allowing one hit.
Wood and freshman right fielder Ayden Herrguth opened up the fourth with walks — the seventh and eighth walks of the game for Folsom Lake — and were brought home on a blast over the left field wall off the bat of Summers for a home run, increasing the lead to 8-2.
“Yesterday I missed a lot of hittable pitches,” Summers said. “I really wanted to help my team move on. So I started to understand what their plan was on the other side and I started to attack that and worked out in the end.”
Sophomore pitcher Brice Cox entered the game in the bottom of the fourth replacing Sandoval and continued where Sandoval left off putting four more scoreless innings on the board for the Bear Cubs while allowing only one hit but walking three.
“Clearly the guys stepped up when they needed to and it definitely wasn’t my best outing today, but it was enough to get a win, that’s all that matters,” he said.
The Bear Cubs added on two more runs in the sixth inning. Martin singled for his third hit of the afternoon and Brown reached on a fielder’s choice. Freshman left fielder Shane Moran followed with a blast over the right field wall for a homerun to make the game 10-2
“That was a grown man’s home run,” Francois said. “Shane can swing it. He’s been struggling a little bit. However, when he gets a hold of it, you saw what happened.”
Folsom Lake pitching supplied the Bear Cubs with another insurance run in the seventh on an error, a wild pitch and three more walks making the game 11-2.
Sophomore pitcher Luke Schat replaced Brice Cox for the eighth and ninth, slamming the door on the Bear Cubs 11-2 win and Super Regionals sweep of Folsom Lake striking out three while not allowing a hit.
“Turn out the lights, baby. The party’s over with [Schat],” Francois said.
The Bear Cubs will face Sierra College in the NorCal regional finals, with a date and time for game 1 still to be determined.
