Falcons hang on to eliminate Butte, advance to Round 3

The Folsom Lake baseball team jumped out to a 5-0 first inning lead, then held on for a 7-4 win  over #10 seeded Butte on Saturday in Game 2 of their Super Regional series at 'the Lake.'  The Butte Roadrunners made things very interesting over the final three innings, scoring one in the seventh, two in the eighth, and leaving the bases loaded in all three innings!  Falcon starter Gavin Ochoa pitched through the fifth and allowed just one run on one hit, although he seemed to be pitching out of a stretch most of the time thanks to five walks and three hit batters.  He still managed to hand the ball over to the bullpen with a 6-1 lead.  The Falcon offense came out of the gate hot, scoring five runs in the first inning on four hits and an error, keyed by Logan Sutter's two-run triple and Chase St. Amand's two-run double.  Drake Digiorno had an RBI single in the first and added an RBI double in the sixth that put the Falcons ahead 7-1.  With the Roadrunners chipping away and the bases loaded with just one out in the eighth, Falcon closer Cole Tremain came on to try to put out the fire.  His first pitch hit the batter, forcing in a run.  The next batter singled, scoring yet another run.  He then got a strikout and a groundout to end the inning.  The ninth started with a Butte single, then after two outs Tremain walked a better and hit a batter, loading the bases.  With the tying run on first and potential winning run at the plate, Tremain induced a ground ball to third to end the game and earn his 10th save of the season.

The Falcons will host Big 8 foe and conference runner-up Delta College in the Sectional Finals starting on Friday.  The winner of the best-of-three series will advance to the State Championship (Final Four) tournament May 28-30.  Game times for the Delta series are:  Friday, 2:00 pm;  Saturday, 1:00 pm;  and Sunday (if necessary), 12:00 noon.