Skyline College’s baseball team beat Shasta College 14-4 last Sunday, Feb. 12. In this particular game, Skyline was able keep Shasta scoreless for six of the nine innings played.

During the first inning, Skyline immediately set the tone for the rest of the game. Shasta accumulated three outs almost immediately as Donald Roethler and Andrew Shaw was grounded out from second and third. This gave Skyline a comfortable lead of five runs.

“We got to their starter early and were able to get on base a lot,” said Skyline hitter Ryan McSwain about the advantages that Skyline had over Shasta.

Shasta’s greatest downfall was in their pitching. Their pitchers could not throw consistent strikes which led to Skyline’s hitter to either walk or hit in more runners. Shasta also seemed to throw pitches that hit Skyline’s players, which worked to the home team’s advantage.

“They had trouble throwing strikes so we took advantage of that,” said Skyline Head Coach Dino Nomicos about Shasta’s pitching.

On the opposite side, Skyline pitched quite well. The winning team only allowed four runs and stopped any kind of momentum that Shasta tried to establish. Their defense was just too much for the visitors to handle. Skyline’s pitcher Austin Conour started and pitched for the majority of innings throughout the game.

“I’m typically not a starter. I just started because we have a lot of games so we have to stretch a lot of guys out,” said Conour. “I think this season is going to be good for me. I think I’m just going to be a one or two inning guy and I think I’ll do a good job.”

According to Coach Nomicos, it is still too early to tell how this victory translates to the rest of the season. Skyline is set to finish the rest of their pre-season games. However, Skyline is currently fifth overall in runs which is unheard of according to Nomicos.

“The kids are playing well. They are starting to believe. We are not even playing our best baseball yet which is exciting,” said Coach Nomicos about how the game will translate for the rest of the season. “It’s too early to tell. We’ve got 20 pre-season games but they count for state ranking and playoffs, so it’s like we are playing two seasons.”

“What I am looking for is consistency in the guys and them just getting better and better every time they go out,” said Coach Nomicos.