College baseball: SRJC closes in on state title series with 7-5 win

Santa Rosa Junior College’s baseball team is one step away from advancing to the CCCAA state tournament finals after defeating visiting Chabot 7-5 on Friday afternoon.

The Bear Cubs can wrap up the best-of-three series with a home victory today at 1 p.m. If necessary, the teams will decide things Sunday at noon.

The state finals will bring together two teams from Northern California and two from the south next weekend in Fresno.

It didn’t look good for SRJC early as Chabot led 5-1 heading to the bottom of the third.

The home team scratched out one run in the third and tacked on three more in the next inning. Ryder Kuhns’ single to left field knocked in two and then Jeff Bart’s sacrifice fly produced the final run of the fourth.

Santa Rosa scored what turned out to to be the winning run in the fifth with a bunt being the only hit. George Foster walked, Myles Andrews successfully bunted, Mitch West walked and Jake Scheiner’s free pass brought home Foster.

Head coach Damon Neidlinger used five pitchers, with Ladd Ah Choy picking up the win. Anthony Bender hurled the final two innings, striking out four.

The Bear Cubs, the top seed in the north, had 12 hits with Scheiner, Foster, Andrews and Zach Hall contributing two each.

Santa Rosa is now 34-8. Chabot, the No. 10 seed, is 27-14.