City College Endures Tough Season Without a Home Field

April 20, 2022February 15, 2024 Seamus Geoghegan

Shane Stanley gets his team motivated by yelling The Rams slogans in the dugout during the 8th inning after Cañada College had their third run of the game, leaving City College two points down with just one inning left in the game. San Francisco, Calif. March 28th, 2022. Photo by Katherine Castillo.

By Seamus Geoghegan

City College baseball struggles to find results in their last games of the season, losing home and away to West Valley, San Mateo, and Skyline.

The team only won a single game in March playing 13 ball games across an assortment of fields, lacking both wins and a home field in this 2022 season.

“I think we’d love to have a field on our campus,” said outfielder Darren Leung. “Just like so we don’t have to drive too much.”

“I don’t want to make excuses,” said pitcher Chad Plath. “It’s definitely tough since CCSF doesn’t have our own baseball field. So for us, it’s like every home game is an away game.”

Infielder Elijah Villalobos throws out West Valley baserunner at 1st base on April 7, in Pacifica. Photo by Bob Kinoshita.

Plath made his first start for the Rams versus West Valley on Apr. 9th, opening the game well for the rams with a three-up, three-down inning.

Overall the game started well for the rams, even leading over West Valley by a run through to the 4th inning.

“I think our bats did pretty well fighting back every time they scored,” said catcher Shane Stanley. “And Chad pitched really well. I think it was just a couple of errors in the field that killed us a little early on because we could have had a lead there.”

Despite starting well against a West Valley side that had beat the rams 3 times prior this season, things slowly started to unravel for the Rams. Five more Viking runs in the 9th inning left the final score at 11-5 to West Valley, and meant yet another tough loss for City.

Catcher Shane Stanley walks back to home plate with his head down after West Valley rally 5 runs in the 9th inning. The rams won a single ball game in all of March. They played 13. Photo by Seamus Geoghegan Apr. 9th, 2022.

“One of the biggest things for us is our endurance over the games, we kind of have a good run, and then we fall off.” said Plath. “And we’re finding a lot of ourselves getting into situations where at the end of the game, we really can’t hold on to what we’re doing.”

Without a single win in April, the rams still continue to soldier on and are hopeful for a better run next season.

“I think we have a pretty good squad with us or just got a lot of young guys, including myself. I’m a freshman, most of our starters are freshmen, so we haven’t played like a full season yet,” said Stanley. “And I think going into next year, we can have a pretty good contending squad if we just do some of the things right. Just not leaving runners in scoring position, and kind of getting out of jams where we haven’t in the past.”