Glendale rallies for three runs in ninth inning to beat L.A. Mission 5-4 March 26; improves to 9-0 in WSC South and 20-5 overall.
In case the rest of the teams in the WSC South were not paying attention to the 5-4 ninth inning rally that the Glendale College Baseball Team posted over visiting L.A. Mission College Saturday March 26, here are a few notable details:
- It was the second ninth inning rally of the week against the Eagles, this time by three runs
- Glendale improved to 20-5 overall and have won 10 straight games
- They have swept three straight series from WSC South opponents and are 9-0 in conference
- GCC is ranked 3rd in So. Cal in the CCCBCA Poll and Brandon Nguyen & Joey Craig were named Players of the Week
- They won Saturday despite trailing for the entire game and getting just seven hits and committing four errors
The Vaqs faced an uphill climb Saturday trailing 2-0 in the first inning but cut it to 2-1 on an RBI single by Will Cheatham that brought home Joey Craig in the bottom of the first. In the top half of the fifth inning, L.A. Mission bumped up the lead to 4-1 before GCC cut that advantage to 4-2 when Hans Seo scored on an RBI single by Izzy Madariaga in the sixth inning. That score held up until the climactic ninth inning.
Had it not been for Tuesday's ninth inning rally in GCC's 3-2 win, few might have thought a second comeback win Saturday was even possible, this time needing two runs to tie and three to win.
But in typical GCC fashion in 2022, the gutty Vaqueros went to work after Brandon Henandez grounded out, Artin Biageyian reached base on an error and then Brandon Nguyen walked to put runners on first and second and both runners advanced to load the bases on a hit by Joey Craig. Adrian Gonzalez then struck out and Biageyian and Nguyen then scored when an error was committed on a ball hit by Hans Seo to the L.A. Mission third baseman to tie the game at 4-4 and then Craig scored the game winner when the throw from the catcher to get Seo out at second base allowed Craig to score the game winner when he stole home on the throw to second.
Aedan Cunningham was on the mound in the eighth and ninth innings for GCC and got the win in relief of starter Kenji Pallares and reliever Tobias Plotkin.
Glendale starts a critical series against Citrus College this week, two games out in the WSC South, Tuesday March 29 at home at 2:30 pm at Stengel Field, 2:30 pm Thursday March 31 at Citrus and Saturday April 2 at 1 pm at Stengel Field.