The Cosumnes River Hawks looked to extend their five-game winning streak as they opened Big 8 Conference play at home tuesday versus their heated rivals Sacramento City Panthers in a much anticipated matchup on March 5th.
Freshman pitcher Zach Stilwell took the mound for the Hawks and Sophomore pitcher Ben Brooks got the starting nod for the visiting Panthers.
It didn’t take long for the Panthers offense to get going as they put up a run early in the top of the first inning and the Hawks found themselves down 1-0 coming to bat in the bottom of the first.
Things quickly turned around in the bottom of the inning as Sophomore first-baseman Garrett Heisinger tied things up with a solo home run to right field, his third of the season.
“He showed me his fastball, then he showed me his curveball so I was guessing a fastball would come again and I was right,” Heisinger said.
However, that became the only bright spot for the Hawks on this day.
The rest of the game belonged to Sac City as they tacked on two more runs in the second inning and six more in the fourth inning making the score 9-1 after four.
Stilwell only lasted three innings, giving up eight runs, allowing five earned and striking out two.
“We just had a couple errors and we just kinda snowballed from there,” Stilwell said. “We didn’t pick it up, we didn’t compete, I mean it happens.”
The Hawks were in a world of hurt and Brooks became lights out as he was able to regain his control and find the strike zone retiring nine consecutive Hawks’ batters after giving up the home run to Heisinger.
“We struck out way too many times and we have to execute better,” said head coach Tony Bloomfield.
Down 9-1, Bloomfield went to the bullpen hoping to find an answer to slow the Panthers offense down.
The answer wasn’t there as the high-powered Panthers offense was able to tack on another six runs in the top of the sixth.
A bases loaded walk in the sixth made things 11-1 in favor of Sac City and former CRC Hawks player Dan Robertson who transferred to Sac City added a two-run RBI double before freshman utility player, Mark Fackrell connected on a three-run home run to increase the lead to 15-1 after six.
“They outplayed us, they were tougher than we were today, and they outcompeted us,” Bloomfield said. “It was one of those days where we played a bad game, they played a good game and we got embarrassed.”
Brooks continued his dominance to end the game going eight innings, allowing three hits and striking out eight.
“It’s just one of those days in the Big 8,” Bloomfield said.