Trojans facing elimination in season finale

Skyline now travels to Salinas Friday to close out the regular season at Hartnell (8-9, 17-20). The Trojans are now in third place in the Coast Pacific Conference, one game behind second-place Cabrillo. Only the top two teams in the conference standings are guaranteed playoff bids, and Cabrillo would earn the tiebreaker — having won the season series with Skyline — even if the two finish with the same record.

The Trojans’ only hope of reaching the field of 18 playoff teams from Northern California is via an at-large berth. Skyline last advanced to the California Community College Athletic Association playoffs in 2017.

“We have to win,” Trojans manager Dino Nomicos said. “But [qualifying for the postseason] is not guaranteed.”

After Tuesday’s starter Paulie Ferrari shut down Hartnell in an 8-2 Skyline win, the Panthers wasted no time getting on the board Thursday. Hartnell rallied for two runs in the first inning then knocked out freshman starting pitcher Nate Rumb with a three-run second. The right-hander worked 1 1/3 innings, his shortest start of the year.

In the ninth inning, the Skyline bats looked poised to get their starting pitcher off the hook. Trailing 7-2 heading into the final frame, the Trojans rallied to load the bases. Kasi Pohahau led off with a double, Mitchell Plane singled and Kaleb Keelan reached on a catcher’s interference.

Andrew Roy followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 7-3. But with one out, Noah Marcelo and Anthony Masetti each grounded out to end the game.

“[Masetti] has been good,” Nomicos said. “He’s been clutch for us, very clutch. … You’ve just got to tip your hat. Now we’ve got to go out [Friday], get a win and leave it in the (seeding) committee’s hands.”

Skyline left-hander Derek Flowers kept the game from getting out of hand, closing out the day with four innings of relief work. The sophomore got touched for one unearned run on four hits. It marked his longest outing of the season, and saw him whittle his ERA down to 1.96 through a team-best 17 appearances.

“A little fatigued,” Flowers said of his prolonged outing. “But that was my first time throwing more than an inning or two for a while.”

Skyline utilized four pitchers on the day, turning to reliever Tony Zamagni amid a three-run second. The freshman right-hander worked 1 2/3 innings. Michael Altman entered in the fourth, surrendering one run through two innings.

Rumb looked sharp at the very outset, opening the game with two quick strikes. He then lost a fastball up and away, and seemed to overcorrect by hitting the left-handed hitting Chase Lindemann with the following pitch. Rumb never recovered.

“He gets that guy and he’s a different guy pitching,” Nomicos said.

Lindemann moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt then advanced to third on a wild pitch to the backstop. Davin Kapuras drove home Lindemann with an infield groundout. Then Travis Madison drilled a solo home run to right to put Hartnell up 2-0.

In the second, Hartnell’s David Ortiz sparked the offense with a one-out single. Ortiz then advanced two bases on a wild pitch. After a walk to JJ Rodriguez, Isaiah Bueno topped a ball in front of the mound, but the throw home saw Ortiz slide around the tag to put the Panthers up 3-0, ending Rumb’s day.

“He was mad,” Nomicos said. “He wasn’t mad I was taking him out. You could tell he was disappointed in his outing, no question.”

Skyline totaled 12 hits but stranded nine base runners while hitting into two double plays.

“We couldn’t get some key hits,” Nomicos said.