Skyline Baseball beat Chabot College 7-6 on a walk-off double from freshman infielder Makai Susor Saturday, April 12, at the Skyline Baseball field, which now puts the team in first place in the Coast-North Conference.
Susor said that the team needed to get the job done, especially at their home field with the series being tied.“Going in we knew this was a big game, they were holding first place, and we beat them once, [and] lost once,” Susor said. “Home field, we had to take advantage of that and get the job done.”
Freshman infielder Santino Nanez said that Susor delivered greatly in the ninth inning. He was impressed with how far the team has come since the start of the season.
“It’s just a big time job from Makai hitting that ball right there. It’s amazing just to see how far this team has come through all the ups and downs now, to see that we’re playing our best baseball. It’s going to be an exciting run,” Nanez said.
Skyline put runs up on the board, first scoring one run in each of the first three innings. Freshman pitcher Luca Dickinson started the game off strong, but Chabot retaliated in a big way in the top of the fifth-inning, scoring six runs on six hits to make the score 6-3 with Chabot on top.
Even though the team was losing, Susor said that everytime Skyline has been down in the game, he has never felt worried because he knows the team is going to push through barriers any way they can because that’s what they are trained to do.
“With this team this year, anytime we’ve gone down, I’ve never felt any sense of panic,” Susor said. “We just do our jobs, keep grinding, and that’s what we showed today and came out on top.”
In the bottom of the sixth-inning, Skyline put two more runs on the board, making the score 6-5 with Chabot still in the lead.
After sophomore pitcher Devin Costa shut down Chabot in the top of the ninth-inning, it all came down to Skyline to decide how the series would end—win or lose.
In the bottom of ninth-inning, Freshman infielder Ethan Reader singled to get on first base. Following the single, freshman infielder Nick Tobin pinch hit for freshman infielder Marcus Cornelio and got a single allowing Reader to reach third base, representing the tying run. Sophomore outfielder Aiden Lackey pinch ran for Tobin, and stole second on a wild pitch, placing himself in scoring position, representing the winning run.
With one out, runners on second and third, Susor hit a line drive into center field and the ball got by Chabot’s center fielder, allowing both Reader and Lackey to score standing up.
Skyline’s dugout emptied completely as everyone ran to Susor as he rounded second base and huddled in the outfield in celebration.
Nanez said it felt really good to get the win and see the team play at their best in one of the biggest games of the season.
“It’s unreal,” Nanez said. “We have been through just so much throughout these past couple weeks, knowing we haven’t been up to our top potential, and to really see it come together this week, especially after taking a loss on Tuesday, it’s just awesome.”
After the game, head coach Tony Brunicardi said the amount of effort the team has put into each practice and game throughout the season showed in today’s victory.
“I’m just happy for them because I see how much work they put in every single day,” Brunicardi said.
Skyline will play every team in their conference one more time, starting with De Anza College on Tuesday, April 15, at 2:30 p.m. at De Anza.
