Merced College baseball rally falls short in ninth

Down three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning, the Merced College baseball team managed to get the tying run in scoring position Saturday afternoon.

The rally came up short, however, as the Blue Devils dropped their home opener 7-6 to Diablo Valley College.

Ryan Cumberland drove in a run with a groundout in the ninth, and Jimbo Pernetti (2-4, 2 RBI) brought Merced (1-2) within one with a run-scoring single. Curtis Kellogg followed with a single, but Pernetti was stranded at second.

Adam Nascimento and David Vidauri had two hits each for the Blue Devils, who totaled 12 hits.

Men’s Basketball

La Sierra 85, UC Merced 74 in Riverside – Big nights from Joshua Kimble (team-high 22 points) and George Olumba (18 points, 10 rebounds) went for naught as La Sierra pulled away down the stretch.

Kenny Veliz had 13 points, five rebounds and three steals for the Bobcats, who fell to 1-22 overall and 0-5 in the California Pacific Conference. La Sierra is 2-16, 2-3.

Porterville 70, Merced College 67 in Merced – Kendrick Sallis (team-high 14 points), Deonta Woodard (11) and Jermaine Crowder all had good performances for the Blue Devils (1-18, 0-7 Central Valley Conference), but they gave up a late lead for the second time in three games.

Men’s Volleyball

UC Santa Cruz 3, UC Merced 0 in Merced – Cole Smith had a team-high seven kills, but the rest of the Bobcats’ offense had trouble getting going in a 25-17, 25-13, 25-15 loss to the rival Banana Slugs at Hostetler Court.

Samuel Hala’ufia had five kills and 1.5 blocks for UC Merced (1-9).

Women’s Basketball

La Sierra 48, UC Merced 42 in Riverside – Shelby Howard had a team-high nine points, but a 17-for-63 shooting performance proved too much for the Bobcats (9-9, 2-3 Cal Pac) to overcome on the road. La Sierra improved to 6-14, 2-3.

Fresno City 61, Merced College 49 in Merced – Eleven missed layups in the opening half helped put the Lady Devils in a 30-16 halftime hole, and they never recovered.

Nitoyra Bone paced Merced (4-16, 2-5 CVC) with 15 points and seven assists, and Mele Tupouata had 11 points and nine rebounds.

Softball

San Mateo 17-18, Merced College 1-2 in San Mateo – The 2014 NorCal top seed at the state tournament showed it hasn’t lost its potency as San Mateo opened the season with a convincing doubleheader sweep of Merced College (0-2).

San Mateo is ranked No. 4 in the CCCAA preseason state poll.

This story was originally published February 1, 2015 at 5:32 PM with the headline "Merced College baseball rally falls short in ninth."