Collom’s solo blast in the fourth cuts Ohlone’s lead to 2-1 but
Renegades pull away
The Gavilan College baseball team has been a study in hot and cold so far this season.
The Rams are doing far better this year than they did last season, when they finished the campaign well under the .500 mark. The team has scored big wins over San Francisco City as well as San Jose City in 2005 and was looking good at 4-4 in conference play just a couple of weeks ago.
But the Rams, who are dealing with some injuries to key players right now, are presently mired in a four-game slide, their latest defeat coming at the hands of the Ohlone Renegades, 10-1 at Gavilan College on Tuesday.
“It was a rough one today,” said Gavilan head coach Neal Andrade. “It’s just like anything, winning’s contagious and so is losing. We had a streak there where we were winning some ball games and things were going our way. But the hits aren’t falling for us now. But I think that the tools and the ability are there, we just need to get it going.”
The Rams’ lone offensive highlight on the day came in the fourth. With two outs down and Gavilan trailing 2-0, B.J. Collom stepped up to the plate and took Ohlone starter Jeff Reekers’ 2-2 offering over the fence in right for a solo home run.
Collom’s blast gave the Rams some hope but the Renegades extended their advantage to five runs with a four-run fifth capped off by a score from Romero Pereda on a sacrifice fly from Jimmy Davenport.
The score remained 6-1 until the eighth, when a string of Gavilan errors, coupled with some timely hitting by Ohlone, saw the visiting team put up the last offense of the game with another four-run inning.
Run Stadler was hit by a pitch from Gavilan’s Marcus Meier to lead things off but was picked off at second on a fielders choice that saw Brent Bowers reach first safely. Bowers was quickly moved over to second when Meier hit Ohlone’s Adam Reeves. Pereda was up next and he earned a walk to load the bases for the Renegades and send Meier back to the dugout.
Gavilan’s Scott Hayslip took the mound next to face Jason Tweedy, whose fast baserunning accounted for Ohlone’s first run of the game. hayslip battled to a full count with Tweedy before the Renegades’ shortstop roped one to right. The ball hit the ground and rolled all the way to the fence, allowing three runs to score and leaving Tweedy threatening at third with only one out.
Tweedy was brought home on Ohlone’s next at bat thanks to a sac fly to wrap up the scoring with the Renegades up 10-1.
“This game aside, I’m pleased with how my club is playing.” said Andrade, whose team travels north to play San Jose City on Thursday. “They’re working hard, guys are playing through some injuries. We’re pressing a little bit. We just have to start playing inning to inning, pitch to pitch.”
