Gavilan falls behind early before rallying in the eighth
Gilroy – Gavilan baseball coach Neal Andrade wasn’t happy with how his team played in Friday’s season opener against City College of San Francisco.
That speaks volumes as to what the fourth-year coach expects out of his team.
Gavilan overcame an early deficit by getting plenty of offense to offset some shaky defense in an 11-7 home victory.
“It wasn’t too pretty but we’ll take the win,” Andrade said. “No disrespect to CCSF, but that’s a team we should beat without having to get clutch hits at the end.”
With the game knotted 7-7 in the bottom of the eighth and the bases loaded via three straight walks, Gilroy High product Drew Anderson hit a bouncing ball over the third baseman’s head for a three-run double. He later scored on a wild pitch to push the lead to four.
“The offense did a nice job to put up 11 runs,” Andrade said. “We got some of the kinks out today. Some guys are still adjusting to the quicker pace of college ball.”
CCSF jumped on Gavilan in the top of the second, thanks in large part to a series of defensive blunders by the home team.
Gavilan committed three errors and also threw a wild pitch as CCSF put an early four spot on the board.
But starting pitcher and Live Oak product Dylan Regan settled down after that, posting four straight scoreless innings before allowing a run in the seventh. He finished the day going seven innings, allowing five runs (two earned), six hits, three walks and striking out six.
With Regan controlling CCSF, Gavilan got to work to erase the deficit.
Julian Castaneda, Scott Mead (San Benito) and Carter Motley had three straight singles to start the bottom of the third, with Castaneda moving up to second and scoring on Mead’s second hit of the day.
Seth Hudson (San Benito) followed with an RBI groundout and Anderson delivered a sacrifice fly to make it 4-3.
Gavilan pulled ahead in the fifth inning with another three-run rally.
Motley led off the inning with a single and Hudson was hit by a pitch. Anderson reached on a bunt single to load the bases and Brian Rossi (San Benito) hit a one-out sacrifice fly to tie the game.
Shayne Christman made sure it would be a big inning when the Gavilan third baseman delivered a bloop double to score Hudson and Anderson and make it 6-3.
CCSF closed the gap with a run in the seventh inning but Gavilan answered it and with Regan’s pitch count at 128, Andrade called on Ryan McFall (San Benito) to pitch the eighth and protect the 7-5 lead.
McFall allowed the first four batters to reach with two singles and two walks. With the bases loaded and no outs in a 7-6 game, he induced Ryan Silver into a double play that scored the tying run. He followed by retiring the final batter to keep it tied.
“It’s demoralizing to have your starter go seven innings and then lose the lead in the eighth,” Andrade said. “It was scary there with the bases loaded and nobody out. That double play was big.”
Gavilan then exploded for four runs in the eighth and McFall retired the side in the ninth to earn the win.
Anderson had a terrific day at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a walk, four RBIs and three runs scored. Mead also went 3-for-4 and had a walk, RBI and a run scored.
Gavilan continues its non-conference schedule today on the road at Merced.
