The Gavilan baseball team hasn’t caught many breaks this season.
The most recent of their tough luck came in a 14-11 loss Thursday
to conference rival West Valley.
The Gavilan baseball team hasn’t caught many breaks this season. The most recent of their tough luck came in a 14-11 loss Thursday to conference rival West Valley.
“Any time you score 11 runs, you got to expect to be in and win a ball game,” said Gavilan coach Neal Andrade. “We’ve had a couple games where we have scored as many runs as today but not in conference because the runs are tougher to come by there.”
After being down 4-0 early in the game, the Rams, whose three wins this year have all come in conference play, battled back and took a 11-10 lead.
But in the eighth inning, left fielder Adam Bearden lost a ball in the sun, allowing the tying run to score with two outs. West Valley added a couple more runs in the inning to go ahead.
“We’ve probably had a chance to win at least half of the games that we have lost,” Andrade said. “We have to go into the games expecting to win instead of waiting for something bad to happen. It would be different if we weren’t in every game. That’s all you can ask is for the opportunity.”
In the second inning, West Valley went up 4-0 after a three-run home run. But Gavilan answered with three runs in the third. With the bases loaded and no out, Steve Gonzalez had a two-RBI double. And Rocco Cosantanza grounded out for the third run.
Each team scored a run in the fourth inning. The Rams loaded the bases in the inning but got just one run on a sacrifice fly.
After West Valley hammered out four more runs, B.J. Collom, who was 4 for 6, had a three-run home run in the sixth to get the Rams within 9-8.
In the seventh, Gavilan had a couple walks, and a batter was hit. Collum knocked in another run to help the Rams take the lead for the first time.
“It was a tough game for us to lose,” Andrade said. “It’s one of those games where we were ahead or tied late in the game and not able to scratch out the win. We are right there. It seems like the breaks don’t go our way late in the game, but you make a lot of those breaks too.”
The Rams will be at Monterey on Saturday then will play against Chabot on Tuesday.
