COLLEGE ROUNDUP, Feb. 1-7: Winning streaks abound
Feb. 8—From the Bakersfield College baseball team winning four straight and knocking off last year's top seed in Northern California to Cal State Bakersfield wrestler Josh Brown taking six straight matches, plenty of local teams are building momentum across both winter and spring sports. Here's more on how they are getting it done.
Bakersfield College
Baseball: Two of the nation's only schools with Renegade mascots battled in Bakersfield Saturday, and BC, which went 12-28 last season, beat Ohlone, which had a 36-game winning streak in 2022. Alek Martinez drove in three key runs and Brock Slikker recorded a six-out save in the 8-5 victory. That extended the Renegades' winning streak to four ahead of this week's three-game series with El Camino.
Beach volleyball: The Renegades opened the season by dropping a pair of matches at Mt. SAC, as a 15-12 third set for Riverside in the No. 2 match made the difference in a 3-2 result early Friday, before the host Mounties swept BC later in the day. Next up are two more matches at El Camino this Friday.
Men's basketball: After a fairly strong start to the season and to conference play, BC has fallen on hard times with five losses in its last six games, and its record had slipped to 11-13 entering Wednesday night's game at Glendale. At Canyons on Feb. 1, the Renegades were held scoreless for the final six minutes and lost 64-55. Then West LA kept BC at arm's length throughout Saturday's home matchup thanks to stellar three-point shooting, even though Dusten Henderson and Terrin Dickey posted season-best performances with forward Rahmel Davis out.
Men's tennis: BC got on the board early in the season with a 7-2 win over Saddleback, just one day after losing its season opener 8-1 to Ventura. After a scheduled trip to four-year Fresno Pacific Tuesday, the Renegades will resume their normal schedule at home against Glendale Thursday.
Women's basketball: The Renegades suffered two more conference losses heading into Wednesday night's road battle with Glendale. They couldn't keep up with Canyons on the road despite one of Elise Enriquez's best performances of the year — 28 points on 8-for-17 shooting (6-for-10 from deep) — and fell 70-57, then returned home for sophomore night and were soundly beaten 76-34 by West LA. BC came out strong and even led 19-18 11 minutes in, but only scored 15 points for the remaining 29 minutes, dropping to 7-18 on the year.
Softball: The up-and-down start to the season continues, as BC beat ranked Long Beach 4-1 before losing to unranked Allan Hancock 8-4 in a pair of road games. The Renegades needed just two hits against the Vikings but used three second-inning errors to score four runs in the second inning. Against the Bulldogs, catcher Stephanie Kay doubled and homered in her first career start, but pitcher Ryleigh Harrison struggled and BC fell to 2-4 ahead of another test at No. 3 Cypress Friday.
Women's tennis: Opening the season with three straight home matches, BC needed three tries to get it right, dropping contests with Glendale and Orange Coast before eking out a 5-4 victory over LA Mission Tuesday. The Renegades salvaged the result at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles after splitting their six singles matches, and will go on the road for the first time this year to Antelope Valley Thursday.
Miscellaneous and looking ahead: Men's golf opened its season in Valencia Monday ... swimming gets started in Ventura Friday, while track and field hosts the Battle of the Regions.
Cal State Bakersfield
Men's basketball: For the first time since February 2021, the Roadrunners have won consecutive Big West Conference games. Big West Player of the Week Antavion Collum scored a career-high 31 points in an 82-76 overtime win over UC Riverside last Thursday, then added 23 more as Marvin McGhee III went off for 26 at UC San Diego. CSUB erased a double-digit deficit against the Tritons for the second time this season, dragged them into another overtime game and held them to 2-for-9 shooting in that period. The Roadrunners improved to 4-8 in the Big West and can build more momentum when they host CSUN Thursday.
Track and field: The indoor season drew to a close in Flagstaff, Ariz., on Friday. Miranda Miller continued to excel in the pole vault and three throwers finished in the top eight spots. The outdoor season begins in Fresno Feb. 18.
Women's basketball: CSUB's defense continues to deliver as one of the best in the Big West, but its offense currently stands as the worst. The Roadrunners scraped by in Riverside last Thursday, winning an ugly 43-39 game to sweep the season series over the Highlanders, but shot just 26 percent in a road loss at UC San Diego and dropped to 3-9 in conference play. They will take on CSUN in Northridge Thursday.
Women's golf: The spring season is in full swing, and the Roadrunners split their tri-meet on Feb. 1 by beating CSUN and losing to Long Beach State. They then came home to host the Valley Invitational Monday and Tuesday and finished 10th of 13 teams, an improvement over last year's last-place finish, led by freshmen Sarah Mutai, who shot a 225. Next up is the Gunrock Invitational in Sacramento on Feb. 27.
Wrestling: CSUB had a chance to knock off ranked conference foe Cal Poly last Friday, trailing 16-12 with two of its top wrestlers, Chance Rich and Angelo Martinoni, left to go, but both fell in sudden-victory decisions to give the Mustangs a 22-12 win. That canceled out Josh Brown's initial upset win over No. 17 Dom Demas at 149. Sunday's dual against Little Rock started much worse, as the Trojans opened an early 21-0 lead and snapped Brown's six-match winning streak on their way to a 30-6 win. CSUB will hope to get right ahead of Friday's home matchup with Stanford.
Miscellaneous and looking ahead: Softball opens its season against Utah State and UCLA in Los Angeles Friday ... volleyball promoted Stevi Robinson-Trail to associate head coach.
Taft College notes: The Cougars' baseball team dropped a home series with Folsom Lake 2-1, then fell to Cerro Coso in Ridgecrest, bringing its record to 2-5 on the year. Freshman outfielder Roman Roberts has started the season strong, batting 9-for-25 with eight RBIs ... Taft softball, meanwhile, was forced to cancel its season due to insufficient roster numbers.
Reporter Henry Greenstein can be reached at 661-395-7374. Follow him on Twitter: @HenryGreenstein.
