Glendale Community College baseball’s title hopes quelled by Citrus walk-off
For a contest that technically took 36 days and 16 innings to play, Saturday’s Western State Conference East Division ballgame came and went rather quickly.
Glendale Community College traveled to Citrus to continue a game that began all the way back in March with the teams tied in the 15th inning.
It ended after roughly 40 minutes of play on Saturday afternoon with Citrus’ Grant Ponder singling to right field in the bottom of the 16th to score Oscar Mejia for a 9-8 win.
The loss for the Vaqueros (32-8, 16-4 in WSC East) concluded their aspirations of a conference three-peat as they were looking to share the crown with College of the Canyons (27-12, 17-3). Citrus (22-18-1, 12-8) took third as the trio awaits the California Community College Athletic Assn. postseason pairings, which are set to be released Sunday.
“Obviously, we would’ve liked a better result, but it’s tough to three-peat,” said Vaqueros Coach Chris Cicuto, whose program three-peated from 2011-13. “It’s always great to win conference, but we have a chance now to accomplish something even bigger going forward.”
Glendale began the week with a three-game series against Canyons and looked to have lost hope at a conference title when COC won the first two games and delivered the Vaqs their only losing streak of the season. But ahead of Friday’s game against Canyons, which GCC won, 15-5, records were altered on the CCCAA website to show that the game against Citrus would be continued with the division title potentially at stake. Cicuto said on Saturday that an email had been set “about a month ago” that the situation would play out as such if necessary. The original game began on March 25.
On Saturday, the 15th inning came and went with Citrus’ Brennan Piceno and GCC’s James Giambalvo pitching 1-2-3 stanzas.
Glendale’s Bruno Teramoto, who officially finished the game with three hits and a run in eight at-bats, lined a single to center field with two outs in the top of the 16th. He was joined on the bases by Konner Piotto (two hits), who singled to center, as well. But Piceno induced an inning-ending lineout to second base.
Citrus began its winning sequence in the bottom of the 16th when Mejia dropped a one-out opposite-field single to right field. Giambalvo came oh-so close to picking off Mejia on two attempts, but Mejia was able to steal second base. Donovyn Curiel then put runners on the corners with a one-out single to right. Giambalvo then got a foul out to first base for the second out before Ponder took an 0-1 offering to right field and was subsequently mobbed in the outfield by his teammates.
“I thought James made a really good pitch on it, the ball was just away,” Cicuto said.
Giambalvo was the sixth pitcher used by GCC in the game. Cicuto said he had three pitchers left.
Grant Mona (three hits, two runs), Jacob Gribbin (three hits, three runs), Mondo Rodriguez (two hits, two runs batted in, one run) and Christian Montes (two hits) all had multi-hit games.
It was indeed a novel experience that concluded a dramatic and hectic week for the Vaqueros.
“It’s something new for us,” Cicuto said of continuing a game in the 15th inning weeks after it started. “It’s an experience.”
Now, the Vaqueros will begin the postseason, likely on the road Friday. While they’ll go in on a loss, if nothing more the week has them battle-tested ahead of the most important baseball of the season.
“It’s been playoff baseball, that’s for darn sure,” Cicuto said. “You use the experience you have through the regular season to help you for the postseason.
“Our goal is to win a state championship; obviously I think that’s every team’s goal this time of year, to be the last team standing.”
Twitter: @TCNGrantGordon
