Defeat Typifies Season of Woe for Canyons

Kirk Fellows and his College of the Canyons teammates left the school’s baseball field Thursday for what was the final time this season.

The Cougars blew scoring opportunities in the eighth and ninth innings and lost to Bakersfield, 4-3, in a Western State Conference game.

“That’s how it’s been all season,” Fellows said. “If you don’t score runs you’re not going to win.”

Canyons (14-20, 10-10 in conference play) finished with its first losing season in school history. The Cougars were eliminated from a berth in the WSC Shaughnessy playoffs by virtue of Moorpark’s victory over Santa Monica on Thursday.

With Bakersfield leading, 4-3, Fellows led off the eighth with a single. Danny Gray bunted Fellows to second, but George Lopata flied to center and Jeff Hairell grounded to third to end the inning.

In the ninth, Bobby Corrales hit a leadoff single and was bunted to second by Jon Strauss. But Chad Miyata grounded to short and Walter White grounded to second to end the game.

“This was the worst year we ever had,” said Len Mohney, Canyons’ coach since 1987. “We lost a lot of one-run games.

“When the final stats come out I guess we’ll see we didn’t hit. The biggest negative will be a lack of driving in runs.”

Canyons’ leader in runs batted in was Mike Kerber, who had 18. “We’ve had years where the sixth or seventh best on the team had that,” said Mohney, who from 1976-86 was a Canyons assistant under Mike Gillespie, the current USC coach.

Canyons stranded seven runners. The first three batters in the order--White, Pat DeBoer and Fellows--were a collective one for 13.

Each team had nine hits and one error.

Bakersfield’s Eric Ontiveros (7-3) struck out four and walked one in going the distance. Canyons’ Mitch Bowen (3-4) retired the last 10 batters. He struck out two and walked one in his second complete game.

“I didn’t hit my spots early in the game and it cost us,” Bowen said. “Even though they weren’t hitting hard, (the balls) were falling in.”

Bowen, pitching for the third time since suffering elbow tendinitis in late March, said: “This is the best I felt since coming back.”

He pitched a rocky first inning--allowing one run on two hits and an error--before settling down to retire 11 of 12.

Canyons built a 3-1 lead after four innings before Bakersfield (17-13, 13-6) rallied in the fifth and sixth. Carlos Flores hit a one-out single in the Bakersfield fifth, stole second and scored on a single by Brian Teeters to cut the lead to 3-2.

Bakersfield scored two runs on three hits in the sixth to take a 4-3 lead. Ray Judy and Ray Arvizu singled and, one out later, Gerardo Gonzalez hit a two-run single.

Gray was two for four with two runs for Canyons. He singled in the second and fourth innings to ignite both of Canyons’ rallies. Corrales had RBI singles in both innings.

Lopata scored on an error to finish the two-run fourth that gave Canyons a 3-1 lead.