Baseball team walks off with 8-7 win

The Falcons found a way to turn an easy win into a difficult one, but in the end, they walked off with an exciting 8-7 victory over Diablo Valley on Thursday at Falcon Field.  The Falcons were rolling along, scoring runs in five of the first seven innings while starter Trevor Johnson was mowing down the Viking hitters.  Leading 7-1,  the bullpen ran into trouble in the ninth, and the trouble snowballed into a nightmare.  The Vikings took advantage of three Falcon pitchers' wildness, inducing five walks and a hit batter to eventually score six runs on just two hits.  The inning finally came to an end with a bases-loaded strikeout by closer Garrett Kellogg-Clark, but only after he'd walked three batters.  The Vikings' pitchers returned the favor in the bottom half of the ninth, loading the bases on two walks and a hit batter with just one out.  Braeden Holliday then pinch-hit for Nate Hargraves and knocked the first pitch through the right side for the game-winning RBI single, scoring Troy Shields. 

Trevor Johnson's final line was indicative of his dominance: 7 innings pitched, no earned runs, and 7 strikeouts.  Troy Shields had two of the biggest hits for the Falcons, an RBI double in the third and a two-run homer in the fifth.  Hiyato Niki, batting leadoff for the first time, reached base all five times he batted, including two singles, a triple, and two walks.

The much-needed win broke the Falcons' short two-game losing streak and improved their Big 8 record to 2-3.  They'll finish the series with DVC on Friday afternoon in Pleasant Hill.