The College of the Redwoods baseball team saw its season get off to a good start this past weekend, with the Corsairs taking two of three games from Mendocino College in Eureka to kick off the 2025 campaign.
“I was pretty happy with it,” CR head coach John Downey said. “Definitely not satisfied by any means, especially by dropping that third game.”
CR got a 13-8 Opening Day win on Friday, with sophomores Oscar Rudman and Seth Grammer both hitting home runs in the win. Sophomore Brock Lenhardt got the start and went five innings with five strikeouts en route to grabbing the win. Rudman and Grammer both had three hits, with a homer and a double apiece.
“He’s a five-tool athlete,” Downey said of Rudman. “Same with Seth. Seth has been a guy that we’ve worked really hard with on building a lot of skills but also building a lot of confidence in him and you could really see it this weekend. You could really just see the joy he has playing the game.”
The Corsair offense put up a six-spot in the third inning to take a 7-1 lead. Lenhardt ran into trouble in the fourth inning, allowing four runs in the inning and five overall in the game. Sophomore Chase Sorenson worked 3.2 innings out of the bullpen, allowing two runs but struck out five to close out the win.
College of the Redwoods and Mendocino took turns blowing each other out during Saturday’s double-header, with CR getting a 16-3 win in the first game before Mendocino ended the series with a 17-0 beatdown.
The first game didn’t start off lopsided, with CR leading 4-1 entering the fifth inning before the Corsairs closed the game on a 12-2 run, including the Corsairs putting up seven runs in the eighth inning.
Corsairs freshman outfielder and former McKinleyville Panther Tyson Bragg began his collegiate career with a bang, going 3-6 in the first game Saturday and falling a double short of the cycle. Bragg was one of three Corsairs to go deep in the win, with Grammer and Rudman both hitting their second of the season.
“Tyson Bragg was someone we had to work with a lot this fall,” Downey said. “We brought him in as a high-quality recruit but in the fall, he kind of struggled. He had some mechanical things to polish up on his swing. He was always a great defender, absolutely always a great defender, from the glove to the great reads in the outfield. This weekend he had thump in his bat with the bomb, he had the triple, which was a double for most people but with that speed he was able to get on third.”
Bragg wasn’t the only former Panther with a strong showing on Saturday. Freshman infielder Tenoch Tapia went 4-5 with three doubles and added a stolen base in the win. Sophomore Miles Oliver got the win on the mound on Saturday for CR, going five innings with six strikeouts and allowing just one run.
“We always had high expectations for Miles. He had a great fall, but that was his first college start. For him to go five really clean, strong inning,” Downey said of Oliver. “Once he settled in, he was lights out. We were really, really happy with where he’s at.”
Things got away from CR in the third game, falling behind 3-0 in the third inning before Mendocino put up a five-spot in the fourth to push their lead to 8-0. Mendocino continued to add on from there but it wouldn’t have made a difference with CR getting only two hits, singles by Bragg and sophomore infielder Justin Powell, in the loss.
Despite the series-ending loss, CR’s start to the season was positive. Last season, CR went just 10-23. This weekend, CR will play three games against Hartnell College before one game on Monday against San Joaquin Delta before returning north.
“In my long time of being in baseball, which has been pretty much my whole life, I’m really happy to say that was probably a top-three happiest moment of my life,” Downey said. “Just experiencing that opening weekend with them.”
Dylan McNeill can be reached at 707-441-0526.
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