By Henry Crowell
henrycrowell5@gmail.com
The Rams were close to taking the lead throughout the game but could not overcome a late-inning offensive explosion by the Cañada College Colts.
City College returned to the loss column with this game, having won their previous match against Cañada just two days beforehand.
“The teams that won, their pitcher didn’t walk guys. They made plays,” Rams Head Coach Mario Mendoza said.
16-2 was the final score on Thursday, March 27, with the Rams posting five hits to Cañada’s 15. The two teams played at Skyline College, where City College acted as the home team.
Gary Ford, the Ram’s freshman third baseman, was responsible for both of their runs when he blasted a 2-0 fastball to left-center field for his third homer of the season. Ford described the dugout as “electric” following the hit. “Having several scoreless innings, it’s good to get a run in,” he said.
“I hit it hard, but it was kind of on a line. Plus, it probably wasn’t my A swing, so I didn’t think it was going to go out, but it did,” Ford said.
Ford had a single, walk and a steal on top of the two-run homer, having a stellar game all around.
Cañada secured the victory by gaining a sizeable lead late in the game. Going into the top of the 8th, they were winning by a score of 5-2, and they quickly increased that, putting up six runs in that half-inning off the back of three hits and five walks. They polished that off with another five runs in the top of the 9th.
Coach Mendoza said, “It’s always that big inning, if you eliminate that big inning, you’ll always have a chance, one run, two runs, you can always fight back. It’s hard when it’s five, six, seven runs in an inning, it kind of deflates you.”
The Ram’s freshman starting pitcher, Wyatt Rowland, got through five innings of solid work, surrendering two earned runs and six hits, walking two batters and striking out one. He attributed his success to his use of his changeup, saying, “Got them out all day. Pop up after pop up.”
“I learned a lot about myself. It was probably one of my better outings this year, just relying on the changeup will get me out of innings. Fall behind in the count? Just go back to the off-speed,” Rowland said.
This loss brought City’s record to 5-20 on the season. At press time, they are now 6-25 and 2-12 against conference opponents.