Butte grinds out wins in twin bill to open season
After slow start, Roadrunners sweep home twin bill against Siskiyous to open season
OROVILLE >> When the Butte College baseball returned to competition at home Saturday against College of the Siskiyous, the bats of the Roadrunner offense started slow.
Butte was playing its first game in a year and a half and head coach Anthony Ferro said he wasn’t sure if it was pregame jitters or first game jitters but his team needed to make an adjustment.
In the fifth inning, Ferro gathered his team together and had a message. He said he felt the Siskiyous’ starting pitcher Joseph Saenz was controlling the batter’s box and the team needed to start acting like it was their batter’s box. Ferro felt his team needed to look for their pitches, stop chasing bad pitches and start taking more quality at-bats.
Butte finished game one winning 3-2 over College of the Siskiyous, and the offense for the Roadrunners continued into game two when Butte won 14-1 in seven innings.
After a scoreless first six innings by Saenz in game one, Butte scratched across its first run of the season in the seventh inning when Andre Schweizer hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Pleasant Valley alumnus Austin York, trimming the Siskiyous’ lead to 2-1. In the bot
tom of the eighth inning, another Viking alumnus came to the plate, when Mark Taylor hit a soft linedrive single to center field to score two more runs and give Butte the 3-2 lead entering the ninth inning.
York finished game one with two of Butte’s six hits while Taylor had a teamhigh two RBIs.
Logan Meyers pitched six innings for Butte allowing two runs and two strikeouts, before Robert “RJ” Aranda pitched a pair of scoreless innings setting up Earl Johnson for his first save of the season.
“The name of the game is getting in the bullpen and we were able to do that and I think that was the turning point for us was getting into their bullpen,” Ferro said. “And I got to give credit to our hitters, our defense and our pitchers because I think we kept the game close. We kept it within striking distance and we kept continuing to grind and it worked out for us at the end.”
After a scoreless first six innings of offense in game one before scoring in the final two innings, the Roadrunner
offense remained strong at the start of game two.
Three runs in the first inning, seven runs in the second, three in the third and one in the fourth gave Butte a 14-1 lead just four innings into game No. 2.
After sending the Siskiyous center fielder up against the center field wall just missing a home run in game No. 1, as the second batter of game two, former Chico State outfielder Grady Morgan hit a tworun home run to centerfield giving Butte an early lead.
An inning later, after a pair of bases-loaded
walks and an unearned run scored on a throwing error by the Siskiyous catcher, the freshman York got his chance in the second inning when his three-run homer gave Butte a 10-0 lead.
In the fourth inning, Morgan showed off his power once more, homering for a second time, this time a solo home run to increase the Butte lead to 141.
York said after game one, that despite the team’s slow offense to start it felt amazing to just play against someone else.
“We had fiery emotions going in our dugout. We
didn’t play our best game that’s 100% a fact,” he said. “But we just improve from this game, got away with a W and we’ll go get the next one.”
York said that coming from high school baseball in the first inning he did need to slow the game down a bit mentally but is staying focused on a goal in the shortened season.
“(Our goal is) win one game at a time. Every game that we get is a blessing,” York added. “And so every game we have we’re looking to win and go 2-0, because we play doubleheaders.”
Catcher Peter Andrews and Morgan each had two hits for Butte in the second game of the doubleheader, while Morgan and York had three RBIs each for the Roadrunners. Schweizer and Johnson each added two RBIs for Butte.
Bryce Armstrong started on the mound for Butte, pitching four innings while allowing six hits, one earned run, two walks while striking out five.
Butte plays next in a doubleheader at noon on Thursday against College of the Redwoods at Tiger Field in Redding.