Bakersfield College baseball is in a season it certainly did not expect. BC athletic director Jan Stuebbe said that BC’s Dean and Adah Gay Sports Complex will not be ready until April 4. The Renegades will play L.A. Pierce in BC’s first Western State Conference game at the newly reconstructed BC baseball field April 4.
Stuebbe said efforts are being made for the stadium to see the light of day, with ensuing problems, such as eletrical, with the BC press box needing to be fixed.
“We are trying to make that work. I’ve been in meetings . and that is our goal. Again, it’s tentative, but we’ll have to wait and see as we go down the wire here,” said Stuebbe.
Last week, Stuebbe made it clear that the date is a goal of the contracting companies and BC, when the plan was still to have the stadium done by the target date of April 1.
“They’ve said they will be done April 1. The contractor says he will be done April 1. Being done April 1 and playing April 2, that’s our goal. We’re going to try to make it happen.”
Before the newly finalized April 4 date, Stuebbe reflected and hoped for the best for the stadium’s completion. “It’s been an interesting year. We’re anxious to get home and play, and I know the players are and coaches are . but we see the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s just now down into the fourth quarter and hopefully everything will go smoothly, and we’ll play a week from tomorrow (April 1). That’s our plan.”
BC (8-18, 6-11 WSC) lost both of its games against Western State Conference contender, Citrus College March 19 and March 21. In the March 19 8-7 loss, Renegade pitcher Marcos Reyna went 5 1/3 innings and only gave up two runs. BC’s Zach Ameson also threw 1/3 along with teammate Patrick Isbell throwing the same amount after Ameson, as Citrus hit seven runs off six hits off both BC pitchers.
In the March 21, 3-0 loss, BC pitcher Jeremy Gonzales went eight full innings, but the three runs on three hits were no match for Gonazles’ eight strikeouts, as the BC offense did not perform against Citrus March 21. The only hits by BC in the loss were by Jarret Martin, Sam Westdendorf, and Matt Reyes who each went 1-for-3.
The Renegades opened up their first WSC game at Sam Lynn Ball Park March 24 against L.A. Mission and lost 20-8. For BC, Greg Sanders took the mound and went five innings and gave up five hits with three runs, some unearned on errors committed by BC. After Sanders, BC used five pitchers that struggled against L.A. Mission.
The only other bright spots for the Renegades came in the fourth inning with a error-reaching run that BC took advantage of with Joey Walker on second base, Brian Haney’s first season hit, which was a double that drove in teammate Walker in the seventh, and Walker hit a solo home run in the eighth inning along with efforts by Haney and Levi Junio each adding to BC’s score of seven runs by the eighth inning did not match Mission’s 16 runs by the ninth inning and Sanders recieved the loss.
BC baseball head coach Tim Painton told the story of the game. “We got our asses kicked today.when you can’t pitch, and you can’t play defense, and you’re offense is anemic, you get what you deserve, and that’s what we deserved. We deserved to get our butts handed to us today.”
Painton insinuated that his team was not competing to their fullest potential.
“We haven’t improved on it (playing baseball) the last three weeks. It’s up to them. It’s got to be a change in mentality. You can’t go out and play a competitive sport non-competitively and that’s what we’ve done. There’s no other way to get over it other than compete a little bit. We don’t compete very well.”
In BC’s March 26 7-3 loss against L.A. Mission, the Renegades’ offense struggled against Mission. Renegades Joe Ramirez (2-for-5), and Greg Osteen (2-for-4) provided the most hits against Mission.
BC’s Reyna received the loss pitching six innings, and Mission had six runs on twelve hits, three of them earned by Reyna due to Renegade errors.
BC lost to Glendale 5-3 March 28. BC pitcher Gonzales threw eight innings, struck out two and gave up six hits, with four of them earned. Renegade pitcher Ryan Huston attempted to shut down Glendale’s offense but Glendale hit two more runs in the last innings to seal the loss for BC. Huston gave up two hits, and one earned run in the ninth.
BC’ s offense against Glendale had Martin, who went 2-for-5, Art Charles, 2-for-5, Nuridin, 2-for-4 and Reyes, 2-for-3.
The Renegades play against L.A. Pierce April 4, their first home game at BC at 6 p.m.