San Jose beats Butte in offensive slugfest

BAKERSFIELD - The San Jose City College Jaguars and Butte College Roadrunners would not quit. The squads combined for 35 hits and the Northern California #4 seed Jaguars held off a late surge by the Nothern California #2 seed Roadrunners to survive and advance with a 14-12 win.

The Jaguars advance to face Cypress College, the #2 seed from Southern California later tonight. Butte ends its season with a record of 43-3.

Kyana Elder led the Jaguars in the win accounting for five RBIs and two runs off a 3-4 performance at the plate. Taylor Fowler added three hits of her and a pair of RBIs in the win. San Jose City totaled 19 hits in the win.

Butte's Ashley Carbah posted five RBIs of her own with three hits including a triple. Savannah Wahl led the Roadrunners with four hits and added two RBIs. Laney Berkowitz added three hits and a run. 

The Jaguars scored early and often and the game looked like it would be a runaway after Elder doubled in a pair of runs in the third to extend San Jose City's lead to 9-1. But the Roadrunners refused to go down. Butte responded with three runs in the fourth highlighted by a double by Dylan Gonzalez that plated Mary Avila and Grace Stearns to cut the deficit to 9-4.

The Roadrunners' momentum left as quickly as it came as the Jaguars used four hits and an error in the fifth to score four runs and extend their lead to 13-4. In the bottom half of the inning, Butte was within out of being run-ruled but an RBI double by Stearns kept her squad alive and Carbah's triple scored a pair of runs and ignited the team.

Butte kept the rally going the next inning scoring four more runs off four hits and two errors to make the score 14-12. But that's as close as they would come as the Jaguars were able to keep them off the board in the final inning.

Melissa Felix, Malaya Street, Adriana Martinez, and Katie Matherly each finished with two hits for San Jose City.

(Anthony Avila, CCCAA)