MC baseball squeezes out victory over Fresno City

Asuka Hashimoto was having a rough night at the plate.

The Merced College sophomore had a number of big opportunities to expand the Blue Devils’ lead on Thursday evening, but had little to no hard contact to show for it when he stepped to the dish in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Some of those missed chances came back to bite Merced as Fresno City rallied to tie the game late. Despite his earlier struggles, Hashimoto delivered in the clutch, dropping down a squeeze bunt on the second pitch he saw to score Jesus Duran. The run proved the difference as the Blue Devils defeated the Rams 6-5 at Blue Devil Field.

The perfectly executed bit of small ball was a fitting finish to MC head coach Chris Pedretti’s 800th-career victory. He joins an elite group, sitting sixth all time in California junior college history. It was every bit as fitting that the milestone come against rival Fresno as the Blue Devils locked up the season series with the Rams. Merced (13-8, 5-0 Central Valley Conference) will go for the sweep on Saturday in Fresno.

“I was kind of nervous,” Hashimoto said. “It was a a big moment in a tie game. Coach Pedretti gave me the sign and I did my best to get it down. It was exciting.”

It was a classic finish to a contest that saw plenty of momentum swings.

The Rams (16-6, 4-1 CVC) jumped out to an early lead for a second straight game as MC starter Evan Estes struggled with his command out of the gate.

Christian Funk opened the game with a lead-off double, but it was walks that got Estes into trouble as he yielded two straight to load the bases. After a strikeout, Nick Sheehan drew a free pass to force in a run. A second came home on a wild pitch, but Estes limited the damage with back-to-back strikeouts to escape the inning.

It was a feast or famine evening for the sophomore right-hander as he struck out 10, but walked nine in a six-plus innings. Estes managed to settle in after the first, however, and his team got him a lead in the bottom half of the inning.

Derek Molina (2 for 2, two RBI) got the rally started with a solo home run and Alex Pallios tripled two batters later. Trevor Chaney (2 for 4) delivered a two-out single to score Pallios and tie the game. Coleton Horner drilled a ball off of the left-field fence to give Merced the lead.

“That was a big response for us,” Molina said. “It was good to bounce right back after they scored a couple so Evan could get some confidence. I thought he pitched his tail off after that.

“These are the games you want to be a part of. It was a good team win.”

Molina tripled in an insurance run in the third inning and Pallios drew a bases-loaded walk in the sixth to give the Blue Devils a 5-2 lead. MC had a few chances to break the game open, but could never produce the big inning, stranding 10 runners in the game.

Fresno took advantage, tying the game with a three-run seventh.

Estes finally ran out of gas, sandwiching a pair of walks around a hit batsman to load the bases with no outs. Nicholas Gonzales came on in relief and yielded a base-clearing double to Sal Esparza. Gonzales (1-1) bounced back, stranding Esparza at third to keep the game tied.

It stayed that way until Duran beat out an infield single and moved up to second when the throw kicked out of play to open the bottom of the eighth. Lawrence Anderson sacrificed Duran over to third and FCC intentionally walked Molina to put runners at the corners and set up Hashimoto’s heroics.

“(Hashimoto’s) had a rough couple weeks at the plate, but he’s a sophomore guy that stepped up and delivered when we asked him to,” Pedretti said. “Our kids did a great job getting on base all night and putting pressure on them. We had all kinds of opportunities to score. We didn’t take advantage of many of them, but we never let them settle in.

“Fresno has gotten off to fast starts the last couple games, but our guys have done a great job keeping calm and fighting back.”

This story was originally published March 17, 2017 at 12:56 AM with the headline "MC baseball squeezes out victory over Fresno City."