The FRC Eagles are in first place
By Mari Erin Roth
Sports Editor
Feather River College baseball is circling the top of the mountain in 2022. Longtime head baseball coach Terry Baumgartner has again put together a winning team. The Eagles are 23-7 overall and 14-1 in conference play with just 9 games left in the league season. They are in the midst of a home game today, April 8, with the Shasta Knights. They host the Knights again tomorrow for a doubleheader, April 9, at noon and 3 p.m.
Three games follow with the Redwood Corsairs, 2 games with the Butte Roadrunners and 2 games with the Lassen Cougars before playoffs. The Eagles have faced all these teams already this season but you never really know what is going to happen on a given day; the score isn’t known until the teams are walking off the field.
The Eagles are staying fresh, thanks in part to an extremely challenging game from the San Joaquin Delta Mustangs on April 4. The Mustangs and Eagles battled on the field for 10 innings when in the bottom of that final inning the Mustangs scored a single run to take the victory home. The final score was 3-2. FRC scored a run in the top of the 4th inning. It was a dramatic homerun hit from right fielder Cooper Kitrel that put the first mark on the scoreboard. The Mustangs scored 2 runs in the bottom of the sixth. The Eagles scored a run to tie it up in the top of the 9th inning. It was Kitrel again who crossed home plate, hit in by infielder Cory McIntyre. FRC kept the Mustangs from scoring and taking the game in the bottom of the 9th inning but then the Eagles were held scoreless in the top of the 10th before the Mustangs broke the tie and won the game in the bottom of the tie-breaker inning.
The Eagles utilized five FRC pitchers trying to find the magic combination to stump the Mustangs. Dakota Todd pitched 2.2 innings and struck out 2 batters of 14 faced. Two runs were scored while Todd was on the mound. Jake Christianson pitched 2.1 innings and struck out 2 batters of 9 faced. One run was scored while Christianson was on the mound. Elijah Hinojosa pitched 2.2 innings and struck out a batter of 10 faced. Kyle Giovannoni pitched .2 innings and struck out 1 batter of 2 faced. Local Drew Baumgartner took to the mound to face 3 batters for .2 innings.
Sophomore Jerry Thomas winds up at the plate. Thomas has hit 7 home runs, 9 doubles and scored 35 runs this season. He’s hit 30 RBIs, and is batting .431 with an on-base average of .537. Photo by Mari Erin Roth
Feather River College freshman Scott Lewis, no. 26, warms up for inning 5 in Quincy during game one of a 3-game series with the Shasta Knights. Photo by Mari Erin Roth
