Fullerton gets steamrolled by Bakersfield 14-2, at Hornet Field on Feb. 26. Head Coach Chad Baum changed his starting lineup before the game. He decided to bench two of his key players, catcher Nate Pone and first baseman Carlos Barrios, for personal reasons. Baum decided to start Ryan Villanueva behind the plate and Hunter Billingsley at first base.
Pone and Barrios stood in the dugout against the padding for a portion of the game, while watching to see if their teammates would pick them up. After the first inning, when Fullerton took a 1-0 lead, everything started to fall apart, as the breaks went toward Bakersfield’s direction.
In the top of the second inning, with a runner on first, Bakersfield second baseman Nick Martin bunted a ball to the left side of the infield. Hornets starting pitcher Will Valenzuela fielded the ball, but was unable to record the out, as his throw went wide of the bag and out of play. The runners moved up to second and third.
Baum went out for a mound visit to calm down Valenzuela and the infield. After Valenzuela struck out Tryce Spainhoward, he gave up back-to-back hits to Santiago Blanco and Jordan Brito to tie the game at 1-1.
Baum took out Valenzuela and put in relief pitcher Eddie Garcia. Valenzuela walked toward the dugout in disappointment, as he was unable to get the backspin and drop on his offspeed pitches.
“[Valenzuela] was on one day’s rest, he didn’t have it today, and he’d been solid for four straight outings and four quality starts, just gotta move on and regroup,” said Baum.
Bakersfield first baseman Brady Baird came up to the plate. On a 1-1 count, Hornets catcher Villanueva tried to pick off Renegades shortstop Blanco at third base on a pitchout. His throw went wide of the bag and into left field, as Blanco was able to trot into home plate, making it 2-1 Bakersfield. The Renegades would add four more runs in the inning to extend the lead to 6-1.
Baum looked in disgust after watching his team make defensive mistakes. He tried to keep his composure during the game, knowing that there was a lot of baseball left to be played. Pone and Barrios could only watch as they encouraged their teammates.
In the top of the third inning, Baum put Pone into the game as catcher to replace Villanueva. Baum was hoping that Pone’s presence on both offense and defense would provide a much-needed spark to the team.
Instead, Bakersfield kept adding on to their lead, scoring in five consecutive innings to make it 12-2 after six innings. The Renegades continued to capitalize on the Hornets’ fielding errors while finding holes in the infield. Bakersfield first baseman Baird hit a slow roller off the end of the bat, with two outs, into left field for an RBI single. Baird hit the ball at the shortstop position, where Fullerton’s Diego Vasquez would have originally positioned him.
Baum could not believe what was happening, as Bakersfield continued to put the pressure on the Hornets’ defense by putting the ball in play.
In the fourth inning, Spainhoward hit a hard grounder over to Vasquez at short, with two outs. All of Vasquez’s momentum drifted him toward third base, as he decided to get the tag out at third. His throw airmailed third baseman Luke Viola, resulting in another run scoring, and the Renegades took an 8-1 lead.
Vasquez looked down, knowing that he made a bad throw.
“It was just one of those days for us, on the mound, at the plate, on defense. We didn’t look like ourselves. The best part about it is there’s always tomorrow,” said Viola.
The Renegades added two runs in the fifth, on a 2-run homer to right field by Baird. In the sixth, Bakersfield continued their two-out hitting approach, with a 2-run RBI double from Mora, who ripped it down the right field line that stayed fair. In the eighth, Landon McDonald tattooed a 2-run homer into left field off Fullerton relief pitcher Daniel Martinez, making it 14-2.
The Hornets were unable to get their offense going against Bakersfield starting pitcher Logan Judd, who threw six innings of two-run baseball.
Fullerton got a rally going in the bottom half of the fifth, trailing 10-1, as Pone scorched one up the middle for a single. Clint Dodson walked to put runners on first and second with nobody out. Leadoff hitter Jake Starr flew out to right field for the first out. Niko Mendez came up and hit a liner into left field. Pone thought the ball was going to fall in, but Bakersfield left fielder Luke Shaw made the catch and doubled up Pone at second base to kill the rally. Renegades starting pitcher Judd was able to work out of it unscathed.
“The guy on the mound had some good stuff today. He was throwing all three pitches for strikes. He just flat-out beat us today. We beat ourselves at times,” said Viola.
Pone got two more at-bats after that. In the sixth, after Vinny Hudson beat out a groundball up the middle to the second baseman, Martin. Viola scored on a throwing error by Martin, which went wide of first base. Pone drew a walk to load the bases. Dodson came to the plate and fouled out to Renegades third baseman Mora, ending the threat.
In the ninth, Pone grounded out to third baseman Mora. Bakersfield relief pitcher Skyler Self recorded the last two outs from Hornet pinch-hitters Nicholas Lopez on a groundout and Malachi Meni on a strikeout.
Once the game got out of reach, Baum emptied the bench, giving other players opportunities to play. As Barrios came to the plate in the eighth inning, for his one at-bat, he rolled over on a groundout to Renegades third baseman Mora.
Baum hopes for a better outcome tomorrow in a rematch with Bakersfield.
“We’d better have better at-bats. Our success has been coming off of running quality at-bats, and executing our pitches, and we didn’t do none of those today,” said Baum.
Fullerton will travel to Bakersfield for their last non-conference tune-up on Feb. 27. Game time is at 2 p.m.
