Glendale college baseball falls to Mt. SAC walk-off rally in game one
One big four-run fourth inning had the Glendale Community College baseball team poised for a win in the first game of its California Community College Athletic Assn. Super Regional against host Mount San Antonio College on Friday afternoon.
But it was a three-run bottom of the ninth for the Mounties that proved to be bigger.
An Elijah Zaragoza one-out double scored Derek Zavala and Quinn Cotter to conclude Mt. SAC’s comeback in walk-off fashion to down Glendale, 5-4, for a 1-0 series lead.
Game two will be played Saturday at noon with the third and final game, if necessary, on Sunday.
Perhaps it’s not the worst fortune for Western State Conference East titlist Glendale (30-14), which lost game one of its first-round series the previous week against Pasadena City College before rallying to win two straight.
Mt. SAC (32-11), the South Coast Conference North champion, posted a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first before Glendale went ahead with four runs in the fourth.
Jake Selco, Konner Piotto, Brandon Lewis and Grant Mona had two hits each for Glendale, which tallied 11 on the day, but only scored in one stanza. Thad Wilson, Troy Viola, Jacob Gribbin and Selco scored runs in the fourth with Mona and Piotto notching the only two runs batted in as errors and stolen bases played a part in the barrage.
The Mounties halved their deficit with a single run in the fifth.
Mason Cornellussen threw eight innings for the Mounties, giving up nine hits and a walk along with four runs (two earned) and struck out three. Matt Garcia pitched a scoreless ninth for the win.
In the top of the ninth, GCC could have added to its lead, but Lewis was picked off after a leadoff double. Mona followed with a one-out single, but a double play ended the inning.
The bottom of the ninth saw a leadoff single, a strikeout, an RBI double, an intentional walk and a walk-off double.
Anthony Robles and Dexter Wilson combined to allow five runs for Glendale with Wilkerson taking the loss, but just like against Pasadena, GCC’s No. 1 Chris Davidson did not pitch in the opener. Against Pasadena, he threw a complete game in the second game and came back later in the day to close out game three.
-Grant Gordon