No. 3 Canyons Suffers 6-5 Walkoff Loss at No.4 Glendale

GLENDALE, Calif. — The College of the Canyons baseball team lost a heartbreaker to Glendale College on Saturday, after a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth put the Vaqueros on top 6-5 to move two games ahead of the Cougars in the Western State Conference, South Division standings.

The run in the bottom of the ninth inning capped off a back-and-forth game that saw the lead change hands four times.

COC took its first lead of the game in the fourth inning quickly after belting back-to-back-to-back home runs to go up 3-2.  Darren Kriz, Chad Bible and Roy Verdejo all hit home runs that inning.

Bible has15 home runs and 58 RBIs on the season to lead the state in both categories.

In the bottom half of the inning, Glendale retook the lead at 4-3, necessitating another comeback. The Cougars used their power to regain the lead once again when JD Krauskopf blasted his fifth home run of the season to put the Cougars back on top, 5-4.

Krauskopf went 1-for-3 at the plate scored a run and drove in two runs. He's now batting .359 with five home runs and 20 RBIs on the season.

Glendale would tie the game in the home half of the inning with a solo home run.

The Cougar lineup couldn't muster much offense in the final three innings of the game and would eventually lose on a single from Glendale's Christian Montes that scored Jared Atkins to make it a 6-5 final. 

The loss puts the Cougars overall record at 25-8 with a 12-6 conference record. Canyons now sits in third place behind Glendale and Bakersfield College.

The Cougars will finish up the final week of the regular season with three games against Antelope Valley College starting on April 26. Canyons will travel to Lancaster, for the opener vs. Marauders with first pitch scheduled for 2:30 p.m.