From the week of April 26 to April 29, the COS Baseball team played three games against three separate teams. Starting with Merced College on the 26th before moving on to Porterville and West Hills Coalinga on the 28th and 30th, the Giants were able to win their last three games of the season.

In winning these last three games, the team was able to qualify for a play-in game against Marin College by being ranked 16th in the state. The Giants previously beat Marin in a three-game series in the first week of February, showing that the odds may just be in their favor.

However, they wouldn’t have gotten to this point without wiping the floor with their three opponents this week, which all started at a home game against Merced.

Even though starter Riley Creech came out of the gate by allowing a run, he would prove to be dominant throughout the game by missing barrels and utilizing the age-old tactic of preventing runners from scoring.

Through 7 innings on 10 hits and no strikeouts, Riley shoved his way past a potent Merced offense that ended up leaving 8 total runners on base and managed to score during his time on the bump.

After Creech, closer J.T. Friesen would come in to pitch the last two innings, slamming the door after giving up two runs and a home run on top of one strikeout and four hits.

For the hitters, third baseman Flavio Perez, as well as right fielder Jackson Brooks both, tallied two RBI for the day. Those two, as well as shortstop Lee Trevino and center fielder Mike Mckernan, added in two base knocks. Ben Pederson would add in a solo shot as well, which accumulated in eight total runs for the Giants.

The second game of this week, although not as action-packed, started out a bit more surprising than many people in the stands were expecting.

Namely, starter Tyce Ochs was only able to go three innings after giving up four earned runs on six hits. Rider Hartman would cover him though, coming in the fourth inning and shutting down Porterville for the next five innings.

After allowing no runs in those innings, as well as three strikeouts and three walks, he was able to salvage the Giants’ pitching performance and allow for the standout day at the plate that the entire team was able to have.

Namely, Ben Pederson was able to continue hitting the ball hard, ending up being just one home run away from the cycle. Of the seven earned runs COS obtained, Ben knocked in four, with Chase Gomez, Flavio Perez, and catcher Tyler Kiggens rounding out the last three.

Head coach Jody Allen was also impressed by the offensive production of his lineup in the game against Porterville, as well as how the rest of the team played that day,

“You know they did a pretty good job hitting, they had around 6 hits in the first two or three innings, but they didn’t have a ton after that. [We] put up some runs, and did a good job early by getting on top of their guy and never lost the lead,” Allen said.

That second inning that the coach mentioned was the tipping point for COS on Thursday because after the Pirates managed to put up four runs in the second inning they wouldn’t manage to touch home plate again for the rest of the night.

Along with Ben’s monster day at the plate, Lee Trevino, Flavio Perez, and Chase Gomez all tallied multi-hit games for themselves, and the Giants finished the day with a 10-4 victory.

Much like the first two games, COS would finish the week out strong against West-Hills Coalinga with a monster offensive performance. Even though starter Cristian Garcia gave up five earned runs on six hits and 5.2 innings pitched, that wouldn’t really end up mattering all that much.

Those 5 runs of leeway were all that the Giant Bats needed after they scored 12 earned runs and 5 more unearned runs on their way to a 17-5 victory that wasn’t all that noteworthy. However, Jimmy Wallace, Mike McKernan, and Ben Pederson all tallied two hits, with Pederson scoring four runs himself.

Julian Lopez, J.T. Friesen, and Stephen Dean would pitch the rest of the game, giving up no runs, no walks, and a total of three strikeouts (which all came from Friesen).

COS has since been placed on the 16 seed for the CVC playoffs and will play their play-in game against Marin College on May 3rd. Make sure to come and support the team on their way to a conference title!

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