San Marcos, CA (Baseball) -- The Citrus College baseball team, the #17 seed in the 2009 CCCAA Southern California Baseball Playoffs, had #1 seed Palomar College right where they wanted them on Friday afternoon.
That’s when things fell apart for the Fighting Owls as they committed three errors, dropped two easy foul balls, and had a run score on a wild pitch in their 10-2 loss.
Starting pitcher Matt Baudino gave the Fighting Owls everything they needed of him, taking the hill and surrendering four runs (just two of which were earned) and striking out four batters in six strong innings of work.
Unfortunately for him, Baudino didn’t get all the help he needed as the Citrus offense struggled to get going early, and the defense made costly mistakes behind him.
Trailing 4-0 in the fifth inning, the Citrus offense finally got to Palomar starter Bobby Shore, as Kyle Nutter led off the inning with a double to left-center field. Joseph Garcia followed that up with a single through the right side of the infield.
With runners on the corners and one out Evelio Ahumada came to the plate and roped a double to right-center field driving in Nutter and putting Garcia on third. Three batters later Angel Marti drew a bases loaded RBI walk to cut the Palomar lead to 4-2.
After that though, the Citrus offense stranded eight runners killing any momentum they gained in the fifth. With the Citrus offense failing to drive in runs, the Fighting Owls relief pitching struggled equally as Aaron Illhareguy gave up three runs, Jesus Sanchez two runs, and Stephen Chakerian gave up one, giving Palomar their final 10-2 advantage.
Nutter would be the lone bright spot in the going 2 for 4 with a run scored. With the loss, Citrus falls to 25-17 overall, while Palomar improves to 33-11-1 overall. The two teams will square off tomorrow for game two tomorrow at 11:00 AM. If necessary, game three will commence thirty minutes after game two.
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