BAKERSFIELD, Calif. ? Freshman catcher Jeremy Rodriguez capped a late comeback by CSUB baseball's Grey team, sending Martin Medina across home plate with a sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth inning, giving his squad a 7-6 win over the Blue team Sunday in the third and final match-up of the three-game intersquad series. The Grey team, which also won game one, 6-1, took the series title that concluded the first fall season for the Roadrunner baseball program.
It was the Blue team that piled up the runs early with Stuart Smith starting things off with a solo shot to lead off the bottom of the second. In the bottom of the third, the Blue team strung together a walk and four hits to push four more runs across the plate and take a 5-0 lead.
Medina's solo home run in the top of the fifth made it 5-1, and the Grey team inched closer on a two-run home run by Jason Kudlock in the top of the sixth, but the Blue team manufactured a run in the bottom of the inning when Garrett Branske was hit by a pitch, then advanced around the bases on three consecutive singles to make it a 6-3 advantage.
The final three innings were all about the Grey team, however, as the squad got a two-RBI double from Richard Escalera in the seventh, an RBI single by Kudlock in the eighth and the sacrifice fly by Rodriguez in the ninth.
Mike McCarthy earned the win in relief for the Grey team, striking out seven and giving up just four hits and one runs in four innings of work. Medina earned the save after throwing a scoreless ninth inning.
Mickey Jannis had a solid 6.2 innings for the Blue team, striking out nine while scattering six hits and allowing five earned runs. Nick Shannon took the loss for the Blue team, giving up one hit and a pair of earned runs in the final 2.1 innings.
Medina, who went 5-for-16 with two home runs and three RBI, was named the series Most Valuable Player by the CSUB coaching staff. McCarthy earned “Pitcher of the Series” honors after going 2-0 with 15 strikeouts and a 0.81 ERA, while giving up just one earned run, eight hits and two walks.
"Our fall team practices were used to introduce our athlete to the culture, work ethic and practice mentality of a world-class DIvision I athletic team," said CSUB Head Coach Bill Kernen. "However, an introduction was all we had the time to present, so we did not get particularly far down the road to actually being a top-level DIvision baseball team.
"That fact is noboy's fault, because these young men worked extremely hard for the past six weeks. It is simply a function of time. Ultimately it will take us between 20-30 months to become what we envision, but we did make a start in that direction," Kernen summed up.
The Roadrunner squad will break from official team training until early February, and will then hit the field for its first official contest Feb. 20 against St. Louis University.
