QUINCY--With their Golden Valley Conference title hopes flashing before them, the Feather River Golden Eagles rallied for a dramatic 5-2 win over the College of the Redwoods on Saturday afternoon at the Eagles Nest.
Trailing 2-0 in the eighth, FRC chased five runs across the plate and Will Page-Allen closed the door on the visitors in the ninth for the comeback victory. With the win, the Golden Eagles improved to 19-4 in the GVC to keep pace with Butte College, who defeated Lassen to also move to 19-4.
It was also the 30th win of the season for FRC (30-7). The Golden Eagles now square off with the Roadrunners next week with the conference title on the line, playing in Quincy on Thursday and at Butte on Friday. Both games start at 2 pm.
On Saturday, Feather River couldn't solve the riddle of Redwoods pitcher Brock Zinck-Lenhardt. Zinck-Lenhardt allowed a FRC hit in each of the first three innings without a run, and then didn't allow a base hit from the fourth through the seventh innings, sending nine batters back to the dugout by way of the K. After Dylan Marx laced a base hit off the Redwoods ace to lead off the eighth, Zinck-Lenhardt left the game and fireworks began for the Golden Eagles.
A hit batter and a Anthony Cepeda single put two more runners on base and Zane Denton singled home a pair to tie the game at 2-2. The hit parade continued after that with RBI-base knocks from Jared Stevenson and Reed Alexander to make the score 5-2. Feather River sent 10 batters to the plate in the inning to get to their five runs on five hits.
Good FRC pitching kept the home team in the game until the eighth inning rally. Eric Valdez pitched the first nearly six innings, allowing only four hits and two runs while fanning six. Ian Hoslett pitched 2.1 innings and gave up just one hit, striking out five, eventually earning the win (2-0). Page-Allen ended the contest with his fourth save with a solid ninth inning that included one hit and a K.
Cepeda and Marx had two of FRC's eight hits to pace the offense.
Redwoods is now 9-19 and 2-19 in the GVC
