QUINCY--The hits just keep on coming for the Feather River College baseball team who won two more games today against the College of the Redwoods to improve to 20-1 in the Golden Valley Conference.
The 9-1 and 7-1 victories guarantee at least a share of the conference title for the Golden Eagles. FRC has a four-game lead on second-place Butte College with four games to play. Two of those four games are against Butte, this coming Friday and Saturday. One more win against either the Roadrunners or Lassen College (April 27-28) would give Feather River the title outright. Either way, it's the 12th conference crown in 15 seasons for FRC head coach Terry Baumgartner.
Feather River also improved today to 29-7 overall and completed the five-game season sweep of Redwoods. The Golden Eagles are now 11-0 at home and have won their last six games. The Corsairs fell to 9-24 on the season and to 3-17 in conference action.
Ryan Blanchard had five hits on the day and scored four times. The Golden Eagles also had two standout starting pitching performances from Bridger Holmes and Elijah Hinojosa to help the home team roll to a pair of victories.
In the opener, Bridger Holmes improved to 6-0 on the season and lowered his ERA to a GVC-best 1.94 with six effective innings. He allowed just two hits, no earned runs, had one walk and struck out eight Corsair batters.
College of the Redwoods scored an unearned run in the first and Corsairs pitcher Shadd Jones kept the Golden Eagles in check and off the scoreboard for the first four innings.
But FRC exploded in the fifth. Seven hits and a pair of stolen bases led to six runs, chasing Jones from the game. Cooper Thacker had a two-run single in the frame and Cooper Kitrel added an RBI-triple to pace the explosion.
The Golden Eagles added three more runs in the seventh, this time getting help from the Corsairs. FRC had just one hit in the inning (by Blanchard) and used three walks, a hit batter and a wild pitch to chase runs across the plate.
In addition to Blanchard's three hits, Jerry Thomas and Garret Damico had two base knocks each. To compliment Holmes' pitching, Scott Lewis and Jake Christianson added three scoreless innings on the hill.
In the windy nightcap, Feather River scored in five of their eight offensive innings and four pitchers held Redwoods to just five hits in the nine inning win.
Hinojosa went five innings on the mound and allowed three hits, one run, had one walk and fanned two. Four shutout innings followed courtesy of the bullpen in Drew Baumgartner, Preston Brook and Tyler Stolfich.
In addition to Blanchard's pair of hits, which raised his batting average to .373, Eric Romero, Wyatt Larranaga and Thacker had two hits each. Romero and Laranaga also scored twice and Thacker had a pair of RBI.
The Golden Eagles will play for a conference title against their closest pursuer this Friday and Saturday. Friday's game is at home versus Butte (2 pm) and on Saturday they will travel to Butte for a 1 pm contest.
