Rustler Baseball team edged by IVC, 2-1

Despite a strong effort by Golden West pitcher Race Parmenter in which he only allowed three hits, the Golden West baseball team was unable to defeat the Irvine Valley College Lasers, losing 2-1 on Thursday, March 17.

"You give up two runs, you expect to win a ball game," said head coach Bert Villarreal. Despite six hits by the Rustlers against IVC's pitcher, Ryan Goodbrand, GWC was unable to get themselves on the scoreboard until the ninth inning.

However, it was a controversial call in the fifth inning that appeared to shift the momentum into the Lasers favor. A lead off double by sophomore John Baccari put the Rustlers in position to break the 0-0 tie. A sacrifice grounder to second base by Danny Baker allowed Baccari to advance to third base with one out.

That's when Golden West decided to attempt a squeeze play, in which Baccari would get a running start at home and hope batter Donald Sneed could put the ball in play, allowing Baccari to score.

Unfortunately for GWC, Sneed swung and missed. Baccari continued his run for home where the home plate umpire ruled that he was safe and the tag by IVC's catcher was not in time. Irvine Valley's head coach, Kent Madole, was irate with the call and argued with the umpire causing the umpire to discuss his call with the first base umpire.

After a short conference, the umpires agreed to overturn the call and rule Sneed out for interfering with the catcher's attempt to tag Baccari. The call also sent Baccari back to third base. A subsequent groundout by Eric Gonzalez left the Rustlers with no runs on the scoreboard to finish the inning.

"What frustrated me was that the home plate umpire was standing right there and he can't stick with his call, he has to go out and ask for help," said Villarreal.

A single in the bottom of the seventh by Irvine Valley's Buddy Johns drove home Scott Kaplan and broke the 0-0 tie and gave the Lasers a 1-0 lead. It was a lead that they managed to hold on to for the rest of the game.

With the Irvine Valley College victory, both teams are now 2-5 in Orange Empire Conference play. Luckily for both teams, there's still plenty of time to better their records as 14 games remain in conference play before regional play begins.

GWC can begin that turn around with back-to-back home games against Riverside on Thursday, March 24 and Santa Ana on Saturday, March 26.