Falcons drop two to Santa Rosa

A key doubleheader with major Big 8 Conference standing implications did not go the Falcons' way on Saturday as they dropped two games to Santa Rosa, 3-1 and 8-4 at Falcon Diamond.  The sweep enabled the Bear Cubs to take over third place while the Falcons fell to fourth, two games behind co-leaders Sierra and CRC.

In the opener, the Falcons took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning on Haylee Reginato's sacrifice fly to deep left field that easily scored Taylor Eby.  The Bear Cubs responded with two runs in the fifth to take a 2-1 lead, then added an insurance run in the seventh to take game one, 3-1.

Bear Cubs wasted no time in game two, scoring seven runs in the first two innings.  Adia Shaw replaced a tiring Lilly Alvarez, who had pitched a complete game in game one. Shaw kept the Bear Cubs off balance with her off-speed pitches and allowed just one run in her five innings while giving her team a chance to climb back into the game.  The Falcons manufactured a run in the second inning on a walk, a stolen base, a hit, and a passed ball.  They added two more runs in the third on back-to-back RBI doubles by Adia Shaw and Haylee Reginato, but ran themselves out of a bigger inning with two outs on the basepaths.  When Sachi Reyes singled in a run in the fifth inning to close the score to 7-4, it looked as though the Falcons could make a comeback.  Those hopes never materialized, however, as the Bear Cubs shut ot the Falcons over the final two innings for the 8-4 win.

The Falcons (15-9 overall, 7-4 in Big 8) will look to rebound on Tuesday night when they host Modesto (9-14 overall, 1-8 in Big 8) under the lights at 6:30 pm.