Thomas Keller's diving catch of an Ethan Anderegg line drive in the ninth put an end to any hopes of a comeback, as San Bernardino Valley College's baseball team lost 3-2 Tuesday afternoon to Barstow.
The Wolverines loaded the bases with one out in the ninth on a pair of walks and a single against reliever Nykolas Crumrine. But Edward Aldama struck out swinging to bring up Anderegg. Anderegg lined a pitch from Crumrine into the right-center field gap, but Keller tracked the ball down and dove over his shoulder to make the catch and snatch the game from SBVC.
But the Wolverines had had chances in the game, and led 2-0 going into the eighth behind a strong performance from starter Pedro Gomez. But in the eighth, the Vikings broke the shutout. With one out, Judah Wilbur singled. Sam Smith followed by laying down a bunt, fielded by third baseman Samuel Pulido. Pulido's throw to first flew into right field, allowing Wilbur to score from first, and Smith to advance to third. Adrian Trujillo followed with a groundout to second to score Smith, tying the game. Gomez finished the game throwing eight innings, allowing five hits and two unearned runs.
In the top of the ninth, Isaac Navarro relieved Gomez, and got the first two batters he faced. But with two outs, Jathan Sibal singled, then advanced twice on wild pitches to Nick Caswell, who finally singled Sibal home with the game-winning run.
SBVC had taken the lead in the first inning, as with one out Aldama singled then stole second. Two batters later Matthew Glover singled him home, and gave the Wolverines a 1-0 lead.
The Wolverines doubled the lead in the sixth, when, with two outs, Gage Brandt doubled home Glover.
But that was it for SBVC, who had three runners thrown out trying to steal, and another thrown out at home in the seventh inning.
Barstow starter Jason Katz scattered 12 hits over eight innings of work against SBVC, striking out six.
Brandt led the SBVC offense, going 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles and a run batted in, while Glover was 3-for-4 with the other RBI and a run scored.
