Yesterday, our Christian Brothers Falcons took on the Rio Americano Raiders in the final game of the opening CAL league series. Rio already having won the series, was looking to sweep, while CB was determined to get the win. Both teams with their separate goals, came ready to play.

The game started out rocky for the Falcons as they were put into an early predicament on defense. With a couple of drawn walks by the Raiders, Rio was able to load the bases in the first inning. After another drawn walk, they scored their first run of the game, putting them up 1-0. CB tried to answer on offense but couldn’t and heading into the second inning similar patterns were seen by the Raiders, which were drawing walks. After multiple walks and a sacrifice fly, the Raiders extended their lead by another 3 runs to make it a score of 4-0. To lead off the bottom half of the second inning for the Falcons, Kellen Martinez(‘23) hit a double. Giacomo Delpiero(‘22) then followed Martinez’ lead, as he hit an opposite field single that drove the run in from second base making the score 4-1. After a quick inning for the Falcons on defense, they caught fire offensively. This fire was ignited by a perfectly placed bunt from Dylan Drake(‘23) in the bottom of the third inning.

Drake was asked what his mindset was going into that critical play, “My mindset going into that was do something for the team. And as I got that bunt down, it swayed the whole motion of the game and it got us going”. It did just that, as Drake was hit in by Jake Tandy(‘22) the Raiders lead was cut in half, bringing the score to 4-2. After a couple of hit by pitches, the bases were loaded with Landon Howard(‘23) up to bat. Up to that point on the season Howard hadn’t gotten a hit yet and his first hit of the season came at a clutch moment. He hit a line drive double into left field clearing all of the bases and put the Falcons on top 5-4. Howard was asked what his goal was going into that at bat, “I had a job to do, bases loaded. I had to get some runs in”.

As the game progressed, CB’s pitching was beginning to find its stride, holding Rio to only one run the rest of the game. This was attributed to outstanding bullpen performances by Nick Goldberg(‘23), Issac Stone(‘22), and Jack Soares(‘23). However, as Christian Brothers figured out throughout the week, Rio was not going to give up. In order to wrap the game up CB needed to get more insurance runs. The Falcons proceeded to get three more runs on a couple errors and a big time RBI double from Gio Munoz (‘22). After these big plays, CB came out on top with a final score of 8-5. Christian Brother’s Head Coach Shane Spence was asked after the game what this win meant moving forward for his team: “This is what you call a character building win, they did their job…..it was an absolute team win”.

Moving forward this Falcons team believes they can do special things, it just took a much needed spark to reignite that fire within them. Going into next week’s league series against Sacramento High School, they have all the momentum needed to make a run for the league title. The next game for the Falcons will be 4:15 PM on Monday 3/21 at Sacramento High School. Falcons First!!