From February 28 to March 6, the COS Giants baseball team played a three-game series against Merced College, in which they lost two of the three games they played.

While it was mostly one-sided, the Giant’s first game of the series on the road saw them make a great late run to try and come back. Even if it got them just short, it was reflective of how the rest of the series would end up.

In that first game on March 1, the Giants lost in a 13-10 barn burner. The only runs in the first five innings would come courtesy of third baseman Flavio Perez, who after tripling in an RBI, would score off of a fielder’s choice from DH Chase Gomez.

In those same five innings, COS pitchers allowed nine runs, with five of those runs coming off of starter Rider Hartman, who also allowed seven hits, as well as a home run. Pitchers Cristian Garcia, Anfernee Murrieta, and Julian Lopez also pitched within those five innings, and in total allowed four earned runs.

Riley Creech would come in to finish the game, throwing the last 2.2 innings and allowing two runs on three hits in that time. The last four innings of the game marked a shift in the offensive abilities of the Giants.

In the 6th inning alone, COS would score seven runs. This explosion of offense came about from three straight walks, followed by a pitching change, and then a wild pitch that would score the first run of the inning, scored by DH Chase Gomez.

After the wild pitch, there would be yet another pitching change, which provided two more walks, with one of those scoring infielder Dominic McLaughlin. Mike Mckernan would score on a walk as well, scoring Chase Gomez once again, followed by a Jackson Brooks single and shortstop Logan Schweizer being hit by a pitch. All of that scoring brought the score back from 7-7, even though COS didn’t have to do much hitting to get those runs.

“They really struggled on the mound near the 6th inning, so even though I think we didn’t play all that well and struggled out of the gate on the mound, we took the lead,” noted Head Coach Jody Allen.

First baseman Flavio Perez would cap the inning off with a two-run single to put COS up 9-7 going into the top bottom of the 6th.

Unfortunately for the Giants, that lead wouldn’t last for very long. After Merced scored three times in the bottom of the inning, COS wouldn’t get the lead back for the rest of the game.

“The games we lost this week really came down to not making plays on defense, and just not swinging the bat as well as we should. The inning after we took the lead 9-7, we got the first guy out, walked a guy, then after getting a double-play ball we couldn’t make the play,” added Allen.

Pitching and defense are often regarded as key to winning games, and after not receiving either of those for Tuesday’s game, they lost the game 13-10.

The second game of the week on Thursday, March 3, was overall much better for COS. The pitching and defense that was absent on Tuesday was in full force for the majority of the game, with starter Jake Tye pitching 6.1 innings, only getting chased after allowing two straight homers and a couple of hard hits in the top of the 7th.

Overall, it was one of the best starts of this season for any of the Giants starting pitching staff, which the coach noted,

“It was one of those situations where he lost it pretty quick, but his pitch count wasn’t super high and I think he had done a good job up until that point in shutting down that team. If you had told me before he had started ‘Hey I’m going to go six and a third and give up three runs’ I would take that any day of the week.”

The rest of the team followed suit, building on Tye’s fantastic start. Second baseman Lee Trevino went 4-5 and scored three, while players Mike McKernan (center field), Elijah Cortez (first base), and Jackson Brooks (right fielder) all batted in two runners each, with Trevino and catcher Tyler Kiggens batting in another two.

The final score is not very reflective of how dominant COS was over the course of the game though, with all five runs of Merced’s coming in two of the last three innings, when they scored five total in the 7th and 8th.

The final game of the series was played again on the road in Merced. It was a perfect example of what the coach iterated to me about how important both swinging the bats and playing fundamental defense are.

Starting pitcher Riley Creech pitched six innings, allowing only five hits and one walk while striking out six and had no earned runs. However, his team was charged with four runs that he did not earn, and that is a clear sign of trouble for a defensive unit.

What was more concerning in this game was Max Ramirez for Merced College throwing an absolute gem. In a complete-game shutout of the Giants, he allowed seven hits, struck out 13 batters, and allowed no home runs.

“We had seven runners left on base, which is obviously too many. But this is a twofold thing, sometimes you just have to tip your hat to the pitcher. The guy threw a complete game, he made pitches when he needed to, and overall he was just pretty good on the mound,” Allen said.

Second baseman Lee Trevino once again knocked some base hits, going 2-4 and obtaining the most hits during the complete-game shutout. However, leaving seven runners on base and allowing four unearned runs is not a way to win baseball games, which will surely be corrected in the upcoming series.

“We want to do a better job with guys in scoring position, you never wanna leave that many guys on base,” Allen put simply.

Allen also continued by jokingly saying, “You know, contrary to popular belief, you have to score runs to win.”

Fear not though Giants fans! Although dropping two out of three puts the team back a bit, being 4-2 in league will see them in a competitive position for the foreseeable future. Their next series is from March 8-12 against Taft, who currently are 2-4 in league.

The Giants baseball program will look to improve on their record and set the record straight in the next series. In the meantime, check out the additional content we have here at The Campus, and COS’ other sporting events!