Pair of long balls bury Gavilan baseball in tight 3-1 loss to
SJCC
GILROY – Tyler Fernandez clubbed two home runs Saturday to lead the San Jose City College Jaguars past the host Gavilan College Rams 3-1 Saturday afternoon in Coast Conference play.
A two-run poke in the first inning and solo shot in the sixth turned out to be enough to hand the Rams a 14th conference loss along with five victories.
“This week we didn’t swing the bats well,” said coach Mike McCormick of the three-game losing streak that included setbacks to Chabot (14-3) and Hartnell (10-3).
“We’ve been in a little slump, a skid,” said McCormick of the offense. “The pitchers have kept us off-balance, and when we get some good swings we’ve hit the ball right at people.”
The Rams wasted a six-hit effort by right-hander Paul Valenzuela over eight innings against the Jags. Scott Perkins pitched a perfect ninth with two strike-outs.
“Paul did a good job on the mound,” said McCormick. “He scattered a couple of hits, he battled. I’ll take that performance any day. We should be able to score three runs for him.”
San Jose struck for the only runs needed when Mark Aherns reached base on a one-out infield error and trotted home when Fernandes turned a Valenzuela pitch into a blast over the leftfield fence.
San Jose’s fifth hit of the game came on the first pitch off the sixth inning, another Fernandez four-bagger for a 3-0 advantage.
The Rams had two innings with two runners aboard without being able to score. Nick Bakich and Rene Dimas hit two-out singles in the Gavilan first inning. A walk and a Jaguar error gave Gavilan hope but no runs in the sixth as a steady rain began to fall.
Gavilan dented the scoreboard in the eighth frame. Christian Cedano lined a single, was pushed to second on a walk, then used consecutive passed balls to score.
Valenzuela finished with three strike-outs. Jeff Froelich responded with a complete game for San Jose City, whiffing five and walking two in a three-hit effort.
Gavilan has a four-game schedule in a tournament in Ventura this week before resuming conference play.
