Heat rout Gold Sox again to complete sweep

In the midst of the toughest stretch of their schedule that will see them play 13 games in 12 days, the Yuba-sutter Gold Sox continue to fall further back in the Great West League standings.

The latest setback came Thursday night, when they booted the ball all over the yard in a rough 16-3 loss to the first-place Chico Heat at Colusa Casino Stadium in Marysville.

The Gold Sox allowed 14 hits, walked 10 batters and committed a season-high eight errors as the Heat left town with a three-game sweep while sending Yuba-sutter to its fifth straight loss.

Chico took advantage of a walk, error and a single to score a run in the top of the first, and took advantage of two errors while scoring two more runs in the second to open a 3-0 lead.

Things went from bad to worse for the Gold Sox in the top of the sixth, when they allowed the Heat to score three runs without the benefit of a hit thanks to four walks and an error. In the seventh, a home run, two doubles, a walk and another two errors allowed the Heat to score five more times to up the lead to 10-0 before they pulled most of their starters.

After recording just two hits over the first six innings, Albert Hsiao singled and Malcolm Boehm doubled to finally give the Gold Sox some life in the bottom of the seventh. Hsiao scored on a groundout by Zachary Promes, and Boehm came in to score on an RBI single by Tanner Harper to get Yuba-sutter on the scoreboard.

The Heat answered with five more runs in the eighth inning to make it 16-2 and the Gold Sox scored an unearned run in the bottom of the eighth to complete the scoring.

Harper finished with two of Yuba-sutter’s six hits in the loss.

The Gold Sox (9-27) will look to get back on track when they travel to Oregon to face the Klamath Falls Gems in a doubleheader today to begin a four-game series. The twinbill was scheduled after a rain out on May 30.

Both of today’s games will be seven-inning contests.