HORNETS END SEASON AT SUPER REGIONALS

On Thursday, the FC baseball team's season came to an end after dropping both of its games against Saddleback 6-1 and LA Valley 12-6.

Hosted by LA Valley College, the Super Regionals is a three-team double elimination series where the winner heads to the 3C2A State Tournament held at Mt. San Antonio College May 25-27. Click here to view the 3C2A Championship page.

The first game against Saddleback began at noon with both teams going scoreless, until the bottom of the third. The Bobcats took a 1-0 advantage on Ben Castelli's single to right center that brought in Bryson Hoier. Fullerton tied the game up 1-1 in the top of the fifth off Andrew Pyle's SAC Fly to right field allowing Diego Franco to come home from third. The wheels fell off in the bottom of five for FC as Saddleback racked up 4 runs to take a 5-1 lead. In the sixth, the Cats added another run from Matthew Deutschm, who homered to left field. That's all the scoring that Saddleback needed as they out-hit the Hornet's usually potent offense 11-3. Losing the opening game forced the team into a second game for the day against hosting LA Valley College.

In the second game of the day vs the Monarchs, the offense for Fullerton woke up, but it was not enough as LA Valley ran away with it 12-6. It was sweet revenge for LAV as they were bounced from last season's Super Regional by the bats of the Hornets. The game was going well enough for FC in the first two innings as Trevor Schmidt ripped a single to right in the first inning scoring Ryan Kirk, and Kirk hit a double to left center in the second plating Noah Rodriguez. The Monarchs tied the game up 2-2 in the bottom of the second, and then shot off 6 runs between the third and fourth innings. By the seventh inning, Fullerton had fought back valiantly pulling within two runs of LA Valley at 8-6. Rudy Gonzales' double scored Britton Beeson and Landon Runge in the fifth, and Trevor Schmidt hit a two-run jack. Unfortunately, that would be all the offense that FC could generate as the Monarchs secured the win with 4 more runs in the seventh.

It was another successful season for Fullerton College baseball as the team finished with 25 wins and 19 losses. In three full seasons under head coach Chad Baum, he has led the Hornets to the playoffs two out of three seasons. The last two seasons, Baum led FC to the Super Regionals.

*Photo by Jim McCormack