Reheated Baker Cools Cuesta

Chris Baker refuses to leave his jobs unfinished.

Or poorly done.

Baker completed his third consecutive start to lift College of the Canyons to a 5-4 victory over Cuesta in a Western State Conference interdivisional game Thursday at Canyons.

The freshman right-hander from Hart High threw 130 pitches but survived a rough third inning and settled down to lead Canyons (14-11, 11-2 in conference play) to its eighth consecutive victory.

Canyons remained in first place in the South Division, two games ahead of Bakersfield.

“[Baker] was going nine [innings] today,” said Len Mohney, Canyons’ coach. “We are a little thin on pitching and we had to use our staff on Tuesday.”

The Cougars were coming off a 17-10 slugfest at Hancock and were looking to Baker (4-4), who shut out Bakersfield in his last outing March 21, to go as long as possible against Cuesta (22-5, 11-2), ranked third in the state and the North Division front-runner.

He didn’t disappoint, except for some troublesome moments in the third inning, when Cuesta scored all its runs.

Baker struck out 10, walked three and allowed five hits.

“He’s a lot more aggressive and he’s a lot more confident,” Mohney said of Baker.

Canyons tagged David Ginn (4-2) for three runs in the first inning, taking advantage of the right-hander’s control problems with his curveball. Ginn went into the game with a 0.62 earned-run average, third best in the state and tops among starters.

Gabby Halcovich and Kasey Canale started the game for Canyons with singles to center field but Canale was thrown out trying to advance to second base on the throw to third that Halcovich beat on a close play.

Rick Nadeau drove in Halcovich with a single to left field and scored with two out on Lou Sanchez’s home run over the left-field fence. Sanchez hammered a hanging curve from Ginn for his second homer in the last two games.

“We’ve had different guys picking us up the last two or three weeks,” Mohney said. “Louie is hot now.”

Baker breezed through the first two innings but Cuesta got to him in the third.

Ricardo Pinon walked to open the inning and Vinnie Hernandez also walked one out later. Gibar Bradshaw connected on a 2-and-2 fastball for his first home run of the season, a drive over the left-field fence. Bradshaw finished three for four.

Cuesta made it 4-3 on the next pitch when Ryan Merkle homered almost to the same spot as Bradshaw.

“I threw two or three fastballs in a row [to Bradshaw]. I told [Mohney, who calls the pitches] to mix them up a little bit after that,” Baker said with a laugh.

Baker worked out of a jam in the fourth, stranding runners at second and third.

Canyons tied the score, 4-4, when Jeff Brown led off the fourth inning with a walk and scored from first on Jeremy Seipel’s two-out double to right-center field.

The Cougars got the game-winner in the fifth on a double by Sanchez that scored Canale from third base. Canale was three for three and Sanchez finished two for four.

Cuesta threatened in the eighth but came up empty.

With one out, Dan Winterberg walked and pinch-runner Doug Thomas stole second. Baker struck out Griffin Moore but the ball got away from catcher Ed Romero, who tried but failed to throw out Thomas at third instead of getting the sure out at first.

Baker picked off Moore and retired Ryan Kaplanek on a comebacker to end the inning.