MERCED--The Feather River baseball team came one inning short of a perfect season-opening road trip, falling on Sunday at Merced, 3-2. 

The Blue Devils scored three times in the bottom of the eighth inning to slip by the Golden Eagles on Sunday afternoon. After a three-game sweep of Taft College, the Golden Eagles returned to Quincy with a solid 3-1 mark to kick off the 2024 season. 

FRC will get right back to work this coming weekend in Sacramento with games against Sacramento City College on Friday and Sunday, and American River on Saturday.

Kyle Giovannoni pitched an excellent seven innings and left without a decision. He gave up just five hits, walked one and fanned six. The lead-off hitter in the eighth inning reached on an error and Giovannoni exited. The sophomore left-hander worked out of a bases loaded jam in the seventh inning in his tightest spot of the day.

Earlier, as the Blue Devils and Golden Eagles matched zeros, FRC finally broke through in the fifth. After Dylan Marx and Andrew Lehmann singled, Kolt Kurzman brought them both home with a single. That 2-0 lead held until the bottom of the eighth when Merced used two walks, a hit batter, an error and two singles to chase three runs across. 

In the top of the ninth, Lehmann reached after getting hit by a pitch and Jared Stevenson followed with a single, but a ground ball double-play would end the contest.

Lehmann and Marx had two hits each in the game to lead FRC.