The Chaffey College baseball team is going to win the Foothill Conference. One more win in the last five games will do it after the Panthers survived local rival San Bernardino Valley 13-12 on Thursday.

But the Chaffey bullpen has been a little shakey. A week ago the Panthers were up on Cerro Coso 8-2, only to give up six in the ninth. They got one in their half of the inning to win 9-8.

That same scenario played out again today at SBVC. Chaffey led 13-7 but SBVC got six in the ninth, four of those on a grand slam by Josh Salmon, who was cut by Chaffey in the fall, How is that for drama?

SBVC had bases loaded when the Panthers finally got the last two outs.

One big blown lead against a mediocre foe in the ninth can happen, but twice in a week has to be reason for concern. If it’s a problem now it could certainly be a problem when the Panthers are facing tougher competition in the playoffs.

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The Chaffey baseball team defeated Cerro Coso 9-8 to improve to 18-10 overall and 15-1 in Foothill Conference play. The conference title should only be a formality as the Panthers are up by four games with eight game to go.

This game was closer than it should have been. The Panthers went up 8-2 and were in cruise control. Then the Coyotes scored six runs in the top of the ninth. Uh-oh! But the Panthers managed a run in the bottom of the inning with Matthew Krause hitting one in the gap with two outs to score a pinch runner from second.

The Panthers have been in front for so long and not really been pushed so maybe they needed a bit of kick in the butt.

The Panthers don’t have as much power as teams in the past. They have a lot more small but scrappy players as opposed to big sluggers. The most impressive player on the field, at least today, was third baseman Matthew Anderson who made a handful of really nice defensive plays.

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