Skyline drops Elite 8 baseball playoff opener

Pierce squared up a fastball from Feather River reliever Kyle Giovannoni and gave it a ride to center field. But with the wind blowing out toward left, the lofty fly ball hung up against the scenic backdrop of Plumas National Forest and center fielder Eric Romero hauled it in on the warning track for the final out of the inning.

“We hit a couple balls that could have been out of a lot of parks, but we just shot ourselves in the foot so much, it was tough to overcome,” Trojans manager Tony Brunicardi said.

One of the biggest shot-in-foot moments came in the ninth inning. With Feather River upping the lead to 8-5 by adding two insurance runs in the seventh, Skyline looked poised for a comeback in the final inning.

Jeremy Chong reached base on a swinging bunt to lead off the frame, then motored to third base when Feather River closer Jake Christianson threw the ball into right field. Chong later scored on a wild pitch. But when Pierce followed by getting a free base on an infield throwing error, the freshman rounded first and got hung out to dry when the errant throw bounded right back to the first baseman, and Feather River ran him down for the first out of the inning.

“It just kicked right back to the guy and we were just too aggressive when we needed to be station to station,” Brunicardi said. “Jesse has been solid for us all year. We made a mistake. It’s just unfortunate it happened in that situation.”

Skyline freshman right-hander Rowan Barnes took the loss, allowing five runs on eight hits through four innings of work. Nick Soudah entered in the relief an yielded an unearned run before right-hander Tylelr Moniz-Witten entered to steady the ship.

The Trojans nearly turned the tables in the fifth, sending nine batters to the plate. Dominic Meza for Skyline on the board with a sacrifice fly and Michael Sarhatt followed by flipping a two-run single to right. Cam Grant then shot an RBI single to center, and a Chong single brough home Grant to close the deficit to 6-5.

But Feather River managed to stop the bleeding, then regained its momentum in the seventh when Jerry Thomas singled home two runs against Skyline reliever Josh Mathiesen.

Thomas was the first batter faced by Mathiesen, who inherited two runners put on by Moniz-Witten. The two-run single was a hard groundball with eyes between shortstop and third base, a punishing outcome for a groundball pitcher who did in fact induce a groundball.

“He’s been so good for us all year that I needed someone to go in there that could throw strikes,” Brunicardi said. “But [the grounder] found a hole where we weren’t.”

After the first out on the basepaths in the ninth, the Trojans reenergized with a single by Jeremy Keller. But Jace Jeremiah followed by hitting a hard smash to short, resulting in a tailor-made double play to end it.

“That was kind of the story,” Brunicardi said. “We hit some balls hard right where they were, and they hit some balls not so hard where we weren’t.”

The best-of-three series continues Saturday with a 1 p.m. first pitch in Quincy. Game 3, if necessary, is scheduled for Sunday at noon. The Trojans turn to staff ace Conor Hourigan for Game 2.

Games are being livestreamed on facebook.com courtesy of Feather River College and can be accessed via the Trojan Athletics Twitter page @Sky_Athletics.