The Rams started to find the stride at bat, as the Fresno City College baseball team found their offensive groove against the 6-0 winner over Chabot College on Feb 12. The Rams swept Chabot in their two game series out scoring the Gladiators 10-1.

This win improved the Rams record to 6-3, moving up into third place in the Central Valley Conference while also continuing their five game winning streak. This loss drops Chabot fifth place in the Coast Golden Gate Conference with a 2-5 record lost for their third straight game.

The opening pitches of the game saw the best defensive fronts from both rosters. It featured a pitching duel from Rams starting pitcher Donovan Bertoncini against Chabot’s Grant Mendoza. Both pitchers shut down their opposing batters in the first four innings not allowing earned run.

With the pitching game of Bertoncini and talented fielders, the Rams defense put on a defensive showcase only allowing Chabot four earned hits. Bertoncini pitched six strikeouts in six innings. Rams Infielder Adam Munoz attested to their shutout defensive performance and finding their groove in both sides of the ball.

“We played really well tonight with great pitches being made on the mount, not allowing much hits, with playable balls and the ones that did we responded quickly to get the easy outs,” said Munoz. “It takes the pressure off of us to try in score runs and when that happens it makes the process much easier.”

At the bottom of the fifth inning, the Rams would strike first, scoring the first two runs of the game. Having runner Munoz on third base to set up Levi Zosky RBI sacrificed fly out to advance Munoz home to score the go ahead run. Later in the inning, a series of hits made by Rams’ Bobby Clark stuck a single to keep the inning alive, followed by Michael Beltran scoring a RBI double to extend their lead to 2-0 to end the inning.

The fifth inning was only a small taste of what was to come for the Rams. In the bottom seventh inning they scored four runs. The Rams batters loaded the bases with three straight walks, followed a RBI sacrifice fly out by Christian Funk and three RBI singles scored by Nick Sheehan, Adam Munoz and Eddie Pena. That increased their lead to 6-0.

Rams Sophomore infielder Levi Zosky reflected on his team’s four run lead as his team finally found their offensive stride.

“Our bats were starting to come alive, hitting the ball really well allowing us to do whatever we wanted to do,” said Zosky. “It feels great that we are finally starting to find what works for us at bat. You know it’s a good thing to retire two of their pitchers inside of one inning of play.”

Despite the lead, the Rams didn’t lead up on the Gladiators on defense which brought in their closer Noah Parsons. He made short work of the Chabot batters and closed his first save of the season with six strikeouts sealing the Rams 6-0 victory.

After the win, Rams head coach Ron Scott was pleased how his team performed on both sides of the ball during the two game series against Chabot. He reflected on what they will take from this win heading into the season.

“This was a good game for us. We played a good team and we were able to pitch well and hit well and we are starting to come around,” said Scott. “It’s a long season; we just got to take the momentum we have and build off of it.”