West Valley College defeats the City College Rams

Santiago Mejia/The Guardsman

Ivan Huang

The Guardsman

City College suffered their seventh loss in a row when they lost to conference rival West Valley College on April 4.

The game was close until the ninth inning when the Rams gave up three runs, including a homerun by WVC freshman Grady Caldwell.

“It was a great game until the ninth inning,” Rams head coach John Vanocini said. “We didn’t come up with the clutch hits when we needed them earlier in the game, but we definitely competed and played a good game.”

It was a far improvement from the last meeting on March 16 when WVC defeated the Rams 11-0.

City College freshman Tyler Scharnow dished out two strikeouts and only allowed one earned run through six innings pitched.

“Tyler pitched his butt off today,” City sophomore Ben Ladner said. “The bullpen also did a fine job giving up just a couple runs to a good hitting team.”

The WVC Vikings (13-6, 8-7 Coast/Golden Gate) took an early lead in the second inning when City College (6-22, 3-12) was charged with two passed balls with the Vikings in scoring position, resulting in an unearned run scored by WVC freshman Nick McGrew.

City Freshman Nick Koh hit a double that scored freshman Joe Moro evening up the score in the fifth inning.

Vikings freshman Conor Martin hit a leadoff triple in the sixth inning and scored after McGrew drove him in on the next at bat giving the Vikings a 2-1 lead.

The Rams were unable to score in the following innings and their hopes were all but shattered when Caldwell hit a two-run homer in the top of the ninth inning.

WVC scored three runs off of three hits in the ninth.

City College was unable to generate any runs on their last at-bats in the bottom of the ninth inning.

“We did a very good job on the mound, and for the most part we played real good defense,” WVC head coach Rick Wiens said. “We hit the ball really hard, a couple of them found holes later in the game.”

Ladner, who leads the Rams with a .309 batting average was not satisfied with his performance, going 0-3 with one walk.

“My performance was poor. I was pretty much unsatisfied with all my at-bats and swings today,” Ladner said. “Bottom line is we had a chance to take the game in our hands, but we didn’t. They kept playing their game and came out on top.”

The conference rivals will meet once again at the Fairmont Field in Pacifica, on April 11 at 1 p.m.

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