OROVILLE—Feather River bounced back from its first conference loss with a vengeance, clipping Butte College twice on Friday afternoon, 7-4 and 12-1 to jump back into first place in the Golden Valley Conference.
The Golden Eagles are now 9-1 in the GVC and 18-6 overall. Butte College is 8-3 in league play and 16-10 on the season. On Thursday, Butte opened the series with a 13-7 victory to halt FRC's 11-game win streak.
Feather River played as the home team in both games as part of the rescheduled doubleheader that was moved up one day due to weather.
The Golden Eagles pounded out 26 hits on the day and scored 19 runs, while clamping down on the Roadrunners for just five runs and 12 total hits in the 16 innings.
In the first game, FRC broke open a 4-4 tie with a run in the seventh and two more in the eighth. Jerry Thomas stroked an RBI-single in the seventh and Jake Madson added a two-run single in the eighth. That was plenty of cushion for Golden Eagle closer Jake Christianson, who would actually pick up the win with 2.1 innings of one-hit work.
Dylan Cabral started the game on the hill and went 6.2 innings, allowing just five hits and two earned runs. He struck out four.
Cooper Kitrel had three of FRC's 12 hits, including a double. Madson also had three hits and drove in a pair of runs, Ryan Blanchard had two hits including a double and an RBI, and Nainoa Kane-Yates hit a solo home run in the second inning to get FRC on the board.
In the nightcap, FRC exploded for eight runs in the fifth inning to build on their 4-0 lead. In that fateful stanza, the Golden Eagles spanked nine hits including a two-run homer by Cory McIntyre and a solo shot by Thomas.
The top three hitters in the FRC order smacked seven hits. Eric Romero had two hits and scored three runs, McIntyre had three hits, stole two bases and drove in four runs and Thomas had a pair of hits, two walks, and scored three times. Kane-Yates also had two of FRC's 14 hits.
Starting pitcher Bridger Holmes was the benefactor of all of that offense. He would toss five innings and allow four hits and no runs, while fanning six Roadrunner batters.
Feather River will play Lassen College in a three-game series, March 25-26. Friday's single game will be at home for the Golden Eagles starting at 2:00 pm and Saturday's doubleheader will be at Lassen College with a Noon start time.
