Leading San Jose City 8-5 after five innings, Gavilan baseball
was headed into unfamiliar territory.
Leading San Jose City 8-5 after five innings, Gavilan baseball was headed into unfamiliar territory.
After losing its last four games, the Rams hadn’t achieved success since a Mar. 20 victory at American River College in Sacramento.
But by the time the top half of the ninth inning was over it was deja vu all over again. The Rams’ starting pitcher, Joseph Vasquez, had worked his way out of jams all game until allowing a bloop single to score a run, and then a three-run home run down the left field line by Max Shupe. The next batter popped out to retire the side, but by then Gavilan found itself trailing 9-8 and three outs away from another painful defeat.
Instead, the Rams responded by scoring a run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, and then one more in the 10th to win the game 10-9.
“That’s our season in a nutshell if we had lost this game,” Gavilan coach Neal Andrade said. “I would have rather we won it in the ninth, but it’s almost better to win from behind in extra innings.”
Not taking out Vasquez, despite visiting him on the mound before allowing any of the four runs in the ninth, was a move Andrade himself questioned in retrospect. While he admitted he had a sense that things could be getting dicey, Andrade also thought “the starter probably deserved a chance to win in the ninth.”
Some heads-up plays by the Rams’ offense, even as things seemed to be falling apart, proved to be the difference.
Alex Oberle roped a one-out single over the third baseman to start the ninth inning rally, and was followed by a bloop single by Jorden Newton. The rally appeared it might stall when Oberle rounded second off of Newton’s hit and was gunned down at third, but Gavilan maintained scoring position through Newton’s awareness to move to second as attention shifted to Oberle.
Drew Anderson kept the late push alive with a walk after almost ending the game with a possible strike-three check swing. Luckily for Gavilan, the second base umpire ruled Anderson did not follow through. Newton then moved to third on a pitch in the dirt to Mike Bolin, who scored Newton later in the at-bat with a single up the middle.
Bolin was later caught in a pickle to end the inning, but by then the comeback was complete.
Gavilan got the margin of victory in the next frame when San Jose pitcher Matt Medeiros loaded the bases before walking Joel Lopez to bring in the final run. The Rams were put in such a position by Kevin Medeiros, who started the bottom half of the 10th by knocking a double to center field, a dribbler by Jacob Glass who got to first on a fielder’s choice that didn’t result in an out, and an intentional walk of Tyler Ozborne.
Gavilan scored three runs in the first in response to two by San Jose, and after allowing two more in the second, the Rams scored two in the third, one in the fourth and two in the fifth.
Glass had a RBI single in the first while the two other runs came home on an error. Anderson brought two runs across the plate with a double in the third and Lopez and Medeiros also brought runners home in their work at the plate for Gavilan.
“That’s one of the better offensive games we’ve had in a while,” Andrade said. “Hopefully a game like this will get our spirits up and let us know we can win (these types of games).”
Gavilan is now 8-17, 2-10 in the Cost Conference – South. The Rams will play Saturday at noon at Hartnell.
