RIVERSIDE – The California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) baseball playoff regional round is the best-of-three situation. No. 22 Grossmont took care of the No. 3 seed Riverside by winning the first two games to sweep the Co-Orange Empire Conference champions out of the playoffs in route to their season-high six game winning streak.
The Griffins (22-17) doubled up the Tigers (28-13), 4-2 to take the series two games to none. It was just a part of a wild and crazy day in the CCCAA Southern California Regionals.
Ethan Heider (7-2) threw four innings of no-hit ball allowing one run on seven walks and two strikeouts. Coming in for the save was reigning Pacific Coast Athletic Conference (PCAC) Athlete of the Week Bradley Barkley who threw four innings allowing just two hits while striking out a pair.
The Green and Gold were in a sharing mood as six Griffins each got one hit.
The game was scoreless through three and a half innings. In the bottom of the fourth, Luke Denos reached on a fielding error by Riverside. A productive groundout by Skyler Agnew got Denos into scoring position. Nevan Noonan wasted very little time and laced a single to center and advanced on the throw home to attempt to get Denos. Denos scored and the Griffins were off and running. Noah Lane doubled to left field driving in Noonan to make it 2-0 in favor of the acting home team Grossmont. Juan Nunez reached on a fielder's choice and was moved to second when Braedon Ross walk. Leadoff batter Brodie Romero reached first on an error by Riverside allowing Ross to move to second and Nunez to score, making it 3-0 at the end of four innings.
Riverside was the No. 3 seed for a reason. They don't just roll over and play dead, they fight until the final out.
In the top of the fifth, the Tigers scored a pair of runs to bring them to within a 3-2 score.
Grossmont would see All-PCAC member Ethan Caschetta reach on a single to center field. After a flyout, Agnew doubled to right center field allowing Caschetta to score and make the score 4-2.
That is how the game would end advancing the Griffins to the Super Regional round.
AROUND SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA...
The quadrant that the Griffins are in for the CCCAA Southern California playoffs was wild. All three of the "higher" seeds won their series. No. 19 College of the Canyons dismissed No. 6 Orange Coast College two games to none. The same could be said of No. 15 Southwestern as they handed No. 10 Allan Hancock two straight defeats. So the Super Regionals will be held at "The Junction" on the campus of Southwestern College during the weekend of May 11-13.
In the "Mission Viejo" quadrant, No. 2 Saddleback took care of business against No. 23 Long Beach City two games to none. No. 11 El Camino (2-0) took care of business against No. 14 Mt. San Jacinto. Closing out the quadrant, No. 7 Glendale swept No. 18 Pasadena City.
The "Santa Ana" quadrant was orderly as the higher seeds won and took care of business. No. 4 Santa Ana, No. 5 Cypress and No. 9 Santa Barbara City all won. It did take SBCC all three games in order to get the job done.
The "San Marcos" quadrant was not as orderly. No. 17 LA Valley took No. 8 Cuesta to game three and won to take the series two games to one. Two of the three games went to extra innings (Cuesta winning in Game one in 10 innings. LA Valley won to take the series in Game three in 10 innings as well). No. 13 Fullerton with a slight upset as they swept No. 12 Chaffey. The major shakeup happened on Saturday. No. 1 (and PCAC Champion) Palomar won Game one 11-2 over No. 24 East Los Angeles on Friday. Saturday was when the script got flipped! East LA won Game two by a 2-1 score. Then came Game three, East LA got to Palomar's pitching staff for seven runs, while the Comets only scored twice.