Baseball: Comeback Win Extends Win Streak for Rustlers

Huntington Beach, Calif. - The Golden West baseball team used a five-run eighth inning to comeback and win Tuesday afternoon against College of the Canyons 11-7. 

The Rustlers (10-4) have extended their winning streak to seven games following six back and forth lead changes with the Cougars (7-8) during the three hour plus game. The deciding blow came in the bottom of eighth as the Golden West offense were able to manufacture five runs on 2 hits. 

The offense got things going early in the first inning as they were able to plate two runs on two hits while taking advantage of two errors by the Cougars shortstop. Justin Simpson led off the bottom of the first with perfectly placed drag bunt for a hit, he was then able to advance to second on a passed ball. Freshman Noah Amenta put the ball in play to the shortstop who thought about throwing the runner out at third before he fielded the ball causing a bobble, then threw the ball to first wildly to allow Simpson to score on the throwing error. The next batter, Nelson Padilla struck out swinging but the catcher for the Cougars couldn't get in front of the ball in the dirt fast enough and allowed Amenta to move up into scoring postion on second with the passed ball. Clean-up hitter Jeff Zordani didn't waste much time cashing in on the RBI opportunity as he would single to left for the Rustlers to take an early 2-0 lead. 

College of the Canyons would tie the ball game up in the top of third at 2-2 with an double down the left field line by Luke Chung. The Rustlers would immediately respond in the bottom of the frame with three runs of their own as Padilla recorded a RBI single, Zordani had a RBI double, and catcher Austin Schell hit a sacrifice fly to put Golden West back on top with a 5-2 lead. The lead would change again in the top of the fifth, this time, the Cougars would plate three runs using three hits and working the Rustlers starting pitcher Eric Romo out of the game. The Rustlers would get a run back in the bottom of the sixth, thanks to another sacrifice fly for Schell. 

Holding a slim 6-5 lead heading into the seventh innning, the Cougars felt the pressure and responded by taking advantage of an error and hit by pitch to take the lead back at 7-6. Thats when the Rustlers exploded for their five runs in the eighth inning to seal the 11-7 victory. 

NEXT: Golden West will host Moorpark on Thursday, February 28th for a 2pm start.