The Long Beach Coast wrapped up their house-warming homestand Sunday afternoon, concluding a six-game series against the Modesto Roadsters at Bohl Diamond at Blair Field.
Fittingly for a franchise still creating its history, the series finale featured another milestone. Locked in a 6-6 tie after nine innings, the Coast played in the organization’s first Knockout Round before the Roadsters escaped with a win.
Modesto sealed the victory in the third knockout round when Bryce Cannon blasted three home runs into the Jered Weaver Bullpen in right field.
The Coast’s Matthew Bardowell launched one solo shot to center field but it wasn’t enough as the LBC wrapped their 12-game homestand with a 10-2 record.
The Pioneer League uses a “knockout round” to replace extra innings. Instead of the extra baseball in the traditional sense, both teams send out batters for a sudden-death home run contest to decide who will win. Each batter gets two minutes to launch as many home runs as they can within the time frame or until five hits and whoever has the most after the round wins the game.
“It’s always intimidating when it’s not BP anymore and you’ve got to win the game with a home run,” Jacob Jablonski said of the Coast’s first knockout round. “But it’s a cool dynamic. You play nine innings and then get a chance to sneak out a win if you come back and tie it. If you’ve got a guy who can put it out of here, you’ve got a chance. This is a tough park to hit in, so you’ve really got to get it. We put our biggest guys out there. It just didn’t happen today, but it is what it is. It’s hard. If everybody could hit a home run, they’d do it, right?”
The Coast (19-5) got an early lift from Jablonski who hit an RBI single to push Cooper Vest across to take a 1-0 lead after the first frame. Cannon responded in the third inning with his own RBI single as the Roadsters tied the game in the top of the third.
However, Jablonski hit a two-run homerun in the bottom of the frame as the Coast pushed the lead to 3-1 after three.
The Roadsters’ Max Handron made it a one-run game when he singled to center allowing Hayden Dunhurst to score to make it a 3-2 game after four innings.
The Coast pushed the lead 5-2 in the fifth thanks to a sacrifice fly from Cuba Bess that pushed Jablonski across. Eddy Pelc hit his own RBi single to left that let Bardowell score.
That lead didn’t last long as the Roadsters scored three runs to tie the game in the top of the sixth.
The Coast retook the lead in the bottom of the lead after Johnny Pappas scored on a wild pitch to give Long Beach a 6-5 lead after seven innings.
The Roadsters once again responded in the eighth and Jacob Lojewski tied the game with a homer to left field.
Both teams went scoreless in the ninth, before Modesto won the game in the knockout run.
Although the Coast’s first knockout round wasn’t a victory, the team also introduced their new mascot, Derrick the Parrot on Saturday.
LBC will make a trip to the Bay for a series against Oakland before they return to Blair Field for a series against Yuba-Sutter.
