The Solano College baseball team had a quiet day at the plate Tuesday, managing only four hits in a loss to Laney. Two days later, the Falcons tripled that total, but it still wasn’t enough to even up the series
Despite racking up 12 hits, Solano couldn’t overcome its own errors, dropping the second game of the series 14-9 on Thursday. While the Eagles scored 14 runs, nine were unearned.
“There was some poor defense on both sides, soft contact on both sides,” Solano head coach Scott Stover said. “It’s just that they ended up putting the ball in play more successfully than we did.”
The Falcons sit at 14-18 overall, and 6-8 in the Bay Valley Conference with seven games remaining.
“We’ve been up and down,” Stover said. “The thing is we could beat anybody and lose to anybody, and that’s not a good position to be in this late in the season.”
Stover said the Falcons are looking to avoid the sweep to keep their playoff hopes alive.
“I think fourth place could get us in because our RPI was pretty high,” Stover said. “But we’ve got to win more games. We can’t just lay down.”
Cameron Taylor got Solano’s bats going with a two-run triple that bounced off the right field wall in the third. As Taylor rounded the bases, the throw sailed out of play, allowing him to score and give the Falcons an early 4-2 lead.
“When we put pressure on the defense, we tend to do better,” Scott said. “If we swing and miss when guys are in motion, that’s not pressure. That’s something we did better early on in the game, where in the second half of the game we couldn’t accomplish that.”
After Solano’s Mason Sayre hit a sacrifice fly in the fourth, the Eagles responded with six runs in the fifth to take an 8-5 lead.
Laney scored five of its six runs during a two-out rally, turning an early Solano throwing error into an especially costly mistake. Solano’s Mark Graham entered in relief of starting pitcher Eli Blurton, and closed out the inning with a strikeout, leaving three Eagles stranded.
Laney added two more runs before Mateo Valadez blasted a 3-2 pitch over the right field wall, giving the Eagles an 11-5 lead in the top of the seventh. Solano’s pitchers often went deep into the count and Laney took advantage, scoring four runs on full counts.
“We try to encourage our pitchers to get ahead and stay ahead,” Stover said. “The more you see a pitch, the better chance they have at hitting.”
The Falcons showed signs of life after back-to-back doubles from Taylor and Trevor Lesperance in the bottom of the seventh. Bryce Alcantara, Cayne Hill and Cooper Dwyer followed with RBIs, narrowing the deficit to 11-9.
However, Solano’s comeback fell short as Laney added three runs in the eighth and ninth, while the Falcons failed to record a hit.
“On the offensive end we try to encourage our guys to see more pitches and we’re swinging at first pitch pop-ups and stuff like that,” Stover said. “This year we just have too many inexperienced guys, which it’s not a knock on them. It’s just guys who didn’t have a lot of experience in high school, or some guys have been hurt for a year or two.”
The Falcons will face the Eagles in the final game of the series on Friday.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
