QUINCY--The Feather River Golden Eagles waited through 12 road games to finally play at their own Eagles Nest, which would serve as the location for their Golden Valley Conference opening games on Saturday.
As Opening Days go, it couldn't have been more golden.
The Golden Eagles rode the shutout pitching work of Kyle Giovannoni and Weston Russell in the opener for a 3-0 win over Lassen College, and then celebrated as Rocco Crow hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth in the second game for a 6-5 victory.
FRC improved to 11-3 on the year and begins GVC play at 2-0. Lassen is now 8-7 and 0-2. The two teams wrap up the three-game series today (Sunday) in Susanville with a single game at noon.
FEATHER RIVER 3, LASSEN 0
Kyle Giovannoni twirled 6.1 innings of scoreless baseball and Weston Russell finished the contest with near perfection as Feather opened conference play with a 3-0 win.
Giovannoni improved to 2-1 on the season by scattering five hits without walking a batter. He fanned three Cougars. He gave up three of his five hits in the first two innings of play and then settled in after that and only allowed two hits over the next five-plus innings.
Meahwhile, his offense finally broke through in the bottom of the sixth against Lassen starter Jacob Vanek, who had pitched five scoreless innings. A walk, error, hit batter and a Quinten Terrell base hit drove in the first run of the game. The Golden Eagles added two more in the seventh on Andrew Lehmann's RBI single and a Lassen balk to make it 3-0. Singles by Zane Denton and Jared Stevenson kept the inning alive to that point.
From there, Russell did his work out of the bullpen. He allowed just two hits and had a flawless ninth, fanning two of the three Cougars he faced, including the final out of the game to earn the save.
The Golden Eagles had just six hits in the game, with Terrell accounting for two.
FEATHER RIVER 6, LASSEN 5
Rocco Crow, who had only six at-bats all season without a hit prior to Saturday, laced three in his second start of the season including the game-winning walk-off blast in the bottom of the ninth for the win.
Crow, a freshman from Reno (Galena HS), was 3-for-4 with three RBI and scored three times. With one out in the bottom of the ninth, he hit his first collegiate home run, a solo shot, to send his team into celebration along with the Eagles Nest crowd of 169.
The Golden Eagles needed all of Crow's offense and then some. They trailed the Cougars 5-2 heading into the bottom of the sixth. Shane Danley's pinch-hit RBI-single and Kolt Kurzman's sacrifice fly brough the home team to within a run at 5-4. FRC finally tied the game in the eighth without a hit, using a combination of walks, a sacrifice and a wild pitch.
On the mound, Will Page-Allen set up Crow's heroics by pitching a perfect ninth inning to ultimately earn the win. He is now 3-0 on the season.
In addition to Crow's offense, Zane Denton had a pair of hits in the nightcap.
