Split Leaves Golden Eagles on Top

QUINCY--First place Feather River essentially held serve in their big doubleheader square off with second place Lassen on Friday, splitting a conference doubleheader to remain in the top slot of the Golden Valley Conference. 

The Golden Eagles won the opener 10-4 while Lassen won the late afternoon game 7-1. Feather River maintains a three-game lead over the Cougars and Butte College (14-8) with a 17-5 GVC record (28-9 overall), while Lassen is now 14-8 (24-12-1 on the season). Three games remain for FRC, including a Saturday game in Susanville against the Cougars. Start time is 1 pm. 

Feather River dominated game one, scoring nine total runs through the third, fourth and fifth innings. Dylan Marx got things started with an RBI double in the third and Anthony Cepeda added a run-scoring single to give FRC a 2-1 lead. The home team blew things open in the fourth with a five-spot, scoring three of the runs via a sacrifice fly, a walk and a hit by pitch, and Shane Danley followed all of that up with a two-run single.

The Golden Eagles added two more in the fifth with Nick Anderson's double the big blow. The hosts would add another run in the eighth for extra comfort. Anderson and Cepeda finished with two hits, including a double each. Kory Chu had three hits, with a double.

Tanner Hail pitched seven strong innings as the starter, allowing only one earned run and six hits. Michael Hoefgen pitched two solid innings of relief, giving up just one hit.

In the second game, the Cougars flipped the script. Lassen scored four times in the second and had three plate crossings in the fourth for all the runs that they would need in a game where the Golden Eagles couldn't get runs across the plate. They had nine hits in the game, including four two-baggers, but they couldn't piece them together and were held to just one run. 

Chu had two more hits, giving him a 5-for-8 day. Kolt Kurzman also had a pair of hits in the second contest. After giving up the seven runs in the first four innings, FRC pitching did good work led by Ben Davalos' four innings, no runs and just two hits. 

After tomorrow's game at Lassen, Feather River wraps up the regular season with two home games next Thursday and Friday versus Shasta.