Eagles Defeat Chaffey, Stay in Playoff Hunt

The MSJC baseball team got back to their winning ways on Tuesday as they defeated Chaffey 12-5 in an Inland Empire Athletic Conference game.

The Eagles were coming off a tough three-game non-conference series against #4 ranked El Camino where they were swept. MSJC pitched well during the series but were limited to just one run over the three-game set. El Camino won by scores of 7-0, 2-1, and 2-0. Dayton Thompson had the only RBI of the week and had a stellar pitching performance in Friday's 2-0 loss. He threw seven complete innings allowing just two unearned runs in the hard luck loss.

Tuesday, back in league play the Eagles' bats came to life as they scored in each of the first six innings on their way to victory. Alex Pintal was hit by a pitch in the bottom of the first to bring home the first run of the day, Brody Boyd pushed the lead to 2-0 in the bottom of the second with an RBI single. The Eagles started to pull away in the third when Matt Rezkalah hit a solo home run and Ryan Rangel blasted a three-run shot. MSJC continued to build the lead all the way to 9-0 after four complete innings.

Boyd reached base five times in the game as he went one for one and earned four walks. Justin Granado picked up a pair of hits and drove home three runs. Gavin Warner earned his sixth pitching victory of the season as he went six complete surrendering just two earned runs on six hits, he struck out four.

The Eagles will finish the week with a pair of road games as the team travels to Barstow on Thursday and College of the Desert on Saturday.

MSJC is in the final stretch of the regular season and are still in contention for a playoff spot. The Eagles are currently 18-15 overall and 12-7 in IEAC play. MSJC is currently one game behind Cerro Coso for second place in the league standings and half a game ahead of San Bernardino Valley. Desert leads the conference at 16-2.