Glendora, CA (Baseball) -- On Thursday afternoon, freshman Kyle Nutter had two chances to win Citrus’ baseball game with Canyons College. The first came in the eighth inning, when the Cougars elected to intentionally walk sophomore Julio Raymundo to get Nutter. The bet payed off as Nutter struck out.
Nutter would be presented with the exact same situation in the bottom of the 10th inning, when Canyons once again intentionally walked Raymundo to get to Nutter. This time Nutter made them pay, hitting a walk-off RBI single to left field giving the Fighting Owls a 9-8 victory.
Early on in Wednesday’s game it didn’t look like Citrus would need any late inning heroics. After opening up the game with a run in the first thanks to a Raymundo RBI single, the Fighting Owls poured on five more in the third taking a commanding 6-1 lead after three innings.
Part of the reason for Citrus’ early dominance came thanks to freshman starter James Janclaes’ time on the mound. Janclaes pitched seven strong innings striking out three batters along the way. Through the first six innings Janclaes only gave up one run, an unearned score in the top of the third.
In the seventh, Canyons finally got to Janclaes with back to back two out solo home-runs that cut the Citrus lead to 6-3. Still Janclaes got the final out, and left the game with a 3-run lead.
After their two bombs in the seventh, Canyons continued their comeback loading the bases up in the top of the 8th with two outs. With their back against the wall, Canyons came roaring back with a grand slam off the bat of Hugo Hernandez giving the Cougars a 7-6 lead.
Canyons would add one more in the 8th, until Citrus sophomore Jesus Sanchez came in and slammed the door shut getting the final out in the inning with the Owls trailing 6-8.
Just as Canyons responded against adversity, Citrus did the same in the bottom of the 8th when catcher Robert Dreyer got things rolling with a one out walk. Freshman Jacob Ludvik would follow that up with a double that just missed clearing the left field fence, scoring pinch runner Oscar Moreno and cutting Canyons lead back to one run.
With Ludvik on second, freshman Angel Marti would continue the rally, driving in Ludvik with a single to left field tying the game up at 8-8.
With Citrus back in the game, Sanchez completely shut out Canyons retiring every single batter he faced. As Sanchez took care of business on the mound, the Fighting Owls offense was creating opportunities at the plate.
The Owls would kick off the ninth with a lead-off walk from Joseph Garcia. After sophomore Evelio Ahumada laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt up the first base line to move Garcia over to second, freshman Ryan Escoto came to the plate with the winning run in scoring position. Escoto calmly laced a single back up the middle, but Garcia was thrown out at home.
Though the Owls just missed winning the game in the 9th, they didn’t give up hope in the 10th when freshman Adrian Cota led off with a single. Cota would then move to second after a sacrifice by Ludvik, and eventually to third after a single to right by Angel Marti. After that, Raymundo was intentionally walked, and Nutter made Canyons pay, as Citrus picked up the 9-8 win.
In the win, Citrus was paced by freshman Ludvik who went 3 for 5 with 3 runs scored and 1 RBI. With the victory, Citrus improves to 6-2 overall and 1-0 in WSC South play, while Canyons falls to 3-7-1 overall and 0-1 in conference play. The Fighting Owls will be back at home tomorrow as they play a make up game with Mt. San Jacinto. First pitch is set for 2:00 PM.
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