College baseball playoffs: Hartnell drops series opener at Feather River
QUINCY — Outside of the players and coaches in the dugout, no one anticipated that Hartnell would still be playing baseball in May. But it is. So the message from head coach Kyle Czaplak is lets make the most of it?
Three games into the 3C2A Regionals playoffs, the Panthers did just that in beating conference champion and host Delta College and Sacramento City twice.
If Hartnell is going to extend its season, it will have to rechannel its thoughts after opening the Super Regionals Thursday with a 10-5 loss to higher-seeded Feather River College in Quincy.
“We weren’t as focused as we have been,” Czaplak said. “We believe we’re good enough to be here and deserve to be here. A lot of people have overlooked us. I don’t know if we were tight. But we didn’t play loose and fearless.”
The Panthers (25-19) season will be on the line Friday in their best-of-three series when they face Feather River, champions of the Golden Valley Conference at 1 p.m.
Ranked No. 13 in the state, the Golden Eagles have won 22 of their last 26 games and are 33-12 overall, knocking off MPC in the opening round of the 3C2A playoffs.
“The message after the game was what has made us good to this point is we have been playing with house money,” Czaplak said. “The goal was to make the playoffs. We knew we were good enough to be in this spot. That’s been our theme.”
In the postseason for the first time in 21 years, the Panthers, who finished fourth in the Coast Conference South, won their first playoff game in 15 years last week, sweeping through the opening round.
Yet, for the first time in the playoffs, Hartnell found itself staring at a four-run deficit when Feather River pushed across runs in each of the first three innings.
“What has given us a chance down the stretch is we’ve thrown strikes and made the routine plays,” Czaplak said. “We didn’t pitch the ball well, and we didn’t defend well.”
If the Panthers are playing with house money, they rolled the dice in the fourth inning, pushing across five runs, two coming on Spencer Merritt’s sharp single, staking them to a 5-4 lead. Emmet Desmond and Hayden Orrill also drove in runs.
“We had some momentum and ended up giving it right back,” said Czaplak, a former Pacific Grove High and Cal State Monterey Bay shortstop. “We made some mistakes defensively and gave some free bases.”
Czaplak was speaking about the eight walks the Panthers pitching staff issued, while a usually dependable defense committed four errors.
Having scored 19 runs in their last outing, Feather River put up a six-spot on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fourth inning to open up a 10-5 lead over the Panthers.
“The frustrating part today is we put up a five-spot in the fourth inning and gave up six runs in the bottom of the inning,” Czaplak said. “We can beat you in a lot of ways. But you are gonna have trouble winning games with four errors.”
If there was something Czaplak can build off of going into Friday’s elimination game, it was the effort of reliever Trevor Parrette, who tossed 4.1 innings of scoreless baseball, allowing just two hits, with three strikeouts.
“He ate up some innings for us and saved our bullpen,” Czaplak said. “Just play with a fearless attitude. Lets make the most of this moment. Let’s not beat ourselves.”
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