Rams ‘just trying to finish the season’ after last home game loss

By Daniel Galloway

The Guardsman

The two last place teams in the Coast Conference Golden Gate division faced off in City College’s last home game of the season.

While both teams are nowhere near contention for the playoffs, the visiting De Anza College (3-29, 3-17 Coast-Golden Gate) tied their season match-up record by defeating the Rams (8-26, 4-16) 4-1.

De Anza wasted no time putting up points on Fairmont Park’s imaginary scoreboard in the first inning, as freshman infielder Travis Conroy’s ground out to second gave outfielder Christopher O’Conner enough time to dash his way to home plate.

“I struggled a little, but I knew we would figure it out,” O’Conner said. “I just tried to stay relaxed and find a good hit.”

The Rams best hitter, sophomore outfielder Albert Talaroc, who leads the team with 15 RBIs and 10 stolen bases this season, would answer De Anza’s early offense in the bottom of the first inning with an RBI double, that scored sophomore infielder Dominic Sebastiani all the way from first base.

Unfortunately that would be City’s only score of the game, after averaging 3.75 runs in their last four games.

The Dons took the lead in the fourth inning when freshman infielder Tyler Walters sent freshman first baseman Stanley Sumibcay home with an RBI double.

The Dons extended their lead in the sixth inning, when sophomore catcher Christian Perez sent freshman outfielder Cole Lang in for the score with a sacrifice fly, putting the Dons up 3-1.

City capped off their disastrous sixth inning by committing an error, which allowed Sumibcay to score and freshman outfielder Marcus Maldonado to advance to second.

Although sophomore starting pitcher Kyle Orwig has had a solid season for City College standards with a 3-4 record, 3.08 ERA and 26 strikeouts this season. The Rams sat Orwig after he gave up the lead.

The Rams brought in sophomore relief pitcher Peter Casey, who has 4 saves this season with a 2.35 ERA.

“It’s just something for the other team to see differently being a left handed pitcher,” Casey said. “With any situation, they normally put me as a closer. Coming into this game, I knew I had to do the job.”

With the Dons sitting on a comfortable 4-1 lead, they brought in freshman closer Marcus DiBenedetto. He tallied his first save of the season.

After losing their last home game, Casey’s focus is to finish out the season strong.

“I just (want to) play the rest of the games (at our) best, and we can since we only have two games left,” Casey said. “I got offers from some schools I’ve been looking at, but right now I’m just focused on taking care of business.”

The game results reflected the story of the season for the Rams.

The team has been very adept and fast at base running, being ranked 19th in the league in stolen bases.

Tramane Moore, Dominic Sebastiani, Danny Donoghue and Jordan Zaragoza accounted for four steals in the game. However, the Rams could not close the deal with their bats and were unable to send their runners on base home for scores.

“A lot of learning, a lot of ups and downs, it was a learning journey,” freshman Moore said. “I will return back to City next year to get my (Associate of Arts Degree), and the team should be stronger.”