Sacramento City College win sets up a Big 8 Championship

FRESNO - It will be a battle of Big 8 Conference powerhouses that will face each other on Monday for the CCCAA Baseball State Championship. San Joaquin Delta College, who has won both of their games at John Euless Ballpark, will be taking on Sacramento City College, who eliminated Orange Coast College, 8-6 on Sunday. The Panthers (35-15) will need to post a pair of wins over the Mustangs, who are making their third state championship appearance in the last five years. They were defeated by Orange Coast in 2014 and 2015. This will be the first state championship game appearance for Sacramento City since 2007.

During the regular season, San Joaquin Delta won the conference title and defeated Sacramento City three out of four times, including a 9-5 win in the championship semifinal game on Sunday morning.

In the win over the Pirates, Sacramento City found themselves down, 2-0 after the first inning, but put up three runs in the top of the second inning to take the lead. The game would be tied at 6-6 after six innings until the Panthers took the lead for good on a two-out triple by Jaylund Johnson, which drove in Creed Smith, who singled with one out. Sacramento added an insurance run in the top of the ninth inning, as an Orange Coast fielding error opened the door for Jake Guenter to double home Smith with two outs.

Panthers starting pitcher Carlos Melero-Salaiz lasted the first five innings and gave way to Isaiah Rodriguez, who kept Orange Coast off guard. He surrendered a pair of harmless singles in three innings of work before Adam Erickson came on to pitch a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his eighth save of the season and second against the Pirates in as many days.

A pair of errors on the Sacramento City defense opened the door for Orange Coast to score a pair of runs in the both fourth and fifth innings. But the Panthers responded with clutch hitting to get back into the game and eventually post the win.

Johnson, who drove in the eventual winning run, went 3-for-5 with three RBI, while Smith reached base five times and scored three runs.