By Tony Gonsalez
Special to Chabot Athletics
The dream season for the Chabot College baseball team came to an unexpected end.
The Gladiators, seeded fourth, came within a matter of inches to pull off an incredible comeback victory. Still, they fell to No. 21 seed Sacramento City 7-6 to drop the best-of-three series 2-1 in the first round of the California Community College Athletic Association North Regional playoffs.
Chabot, which finished the successful season 29-13-1, led the state in homers and won the Coast-North Conference title while qualifying for the playoffs for the first time since 2018. The 29 wins were the most by a Chabot squad since winning 32 games in 2014.
After dropping the first game of the series 7-5 on Friday, the Gladiators were forced to win two on Saturday to advance to the next round.
Sam Heyman went to distance in game 2 of the series with 12 strikeouts as Chabot pulled away late for a 5-1 victory to force a winner-take-all match-up.
"We had a lot to be proud of, but I wasn't ready to end the season yet, so I went out there to make sure our season wouldn't end and had the adrenaline to finish strong," Heyman said.
Chabot next went with Hawk Hill on the mound against Santa Clara-bound lefty Brayden Dotoli.
Hill got into trouble in the opening inning as Sacramento loaded the bases with two outs, but Hill got a fly ball to end the threat.
He managed to allow just one more hit in the next five innings to keep the Panthers bats off-balance.
The Gladiators had golden opportunities to break through first in the fourth and fifth innings, but came away empty.
In the fourth they loaded the bases with no outs, but a shallow fly ball followed by an unsuccessful squeeze-play got the runner tagged out at the plate before a popout ended the threat.
An inning later, Chabot's Aidan Morton opened with a triple and a walk put runners on the corner with no outs. Casey Cummings hit a grounder to the Panthers third baseman, who got the force out at second, Morton tried to score on the throw and was thrown out at the plate to end another threat.
Sacramento City finally got to Hill on the seventh as Tyler Hamilton led off with a shot over the left field fence for a 1-0 Panthers lead. Mateo Lake added an RBI double before Elijah Rogalski capped off the five-run rally with a three-run homer.
The Panthers added two more in the eighth on RBI hits by Aiden Isola and Lake for a 7-0 lead that seemed too big to overcome.
Brian DuRoff, the state's leading home-run hitter, got Chabot on the board with his 21st dinger on the year, a two-run shot, to cut the deficit to 7-2.
Chabot made things even more interesting in the ninth when Kacen Shreffler led off with a single and Justin Durflinger followed with a double. Both runners scored when Morton ripped his second triple of the game before a Brady Wetzel double scored Morton to make it a 7-5 contest with no outs. Panthers closer Hayden Crews came in and proceeded to walk Cummings to bring up DuRoff.
DuRoff scorched one to the deepest part of the ballpark to dead-center, but Panthers outfielder DJ Scott made the catch against the wall.
Alonzo Guijarro came up and hit another drive to the right-center fence where the ball hit off the glove of the outfielder, allowing Wetzel to score. Cummings, however, was only able to make it to second.
Crews came back to get a pair if pop outs to end the game, series, and season for the Gladiators.
Morton, starting in place of injured starting catcher Liam Forsyth, reached base four times with the two triples and walked twice. Guijarro also had two hits.
In Game 2 of the series. The Gladiators and Panthers were tied at 1-1 when Chabot finally pulled ahead with a three-spot in the eighth. Guijarro singled and back-to-back walks to Fred Ramos and Kolin Fukuki loaded the bases. With one out, Mathieu Robillard dropped down a perfect bunt on a squeeze play to bring home Guijarro. Wetzel added a single to bring in both Ramos and Fukuki as Chabot took a 4-1 lead.
Guijarro added a solo homer in the ninth. Heyman scattered four hits as the Panthers only run came in on a solo homer in the second by Rogalski.
Wetzel led the way with three hits, with Guijarro and Shreffler adding two hits apiece. The win didn't came without cost as Forsyth, batting in the seventh inning, swung and fell to the ground in obvious pain with an apparent knee injury. He was replaced by Morton the rest of the day.
Sacramento City opened the playoffs Friday with a 7-5 comeback win. Trailing 5-3, the Panthers took the lead in the eighth on a three-run double by Stefan Foley. Rogalski added a solo homer in the ninth before Crews finished off the last two innings for the win.
DuRoff hit his 20th homer in the seventh and went 3 for 5 with two runs scored. Cummings and Forsyth both went 2-for-4. Antoine Valerio had a gutty performance for the Gladiators on the mound, going seven strong innings, allowing nine hits, three runs and struck out four.