Thanks to some last-inning heroics, Feather River College pitchers Jeremy Kinney and Jason Price wound up with complete game victories over the weekend.
And the Golden Eagles from Quincy, Calif., advanced to the second round of the California community college baseball playoffs by sweeping a best-of-three series at College of San Mateo, winning 6-5 on Friday and 5-4 on Saturday.
Feather River (31-10), shutout through eight innings, rallied to score six runs in the top of the ninth inning to pull out a one-run victory against San Mateo in the series opener on Friday. Kinney, a 1998 Dayton High School graduate, pitched the distance to win the game.
Saturday was almost identical, only this time Feather River trailed 4-1 going to the bottom of the ninth. The Golden Eagles scored four times in their final at-bat to make a winner of Price, a 1998 Carson High School graduate who rang up his 12th straight win this season.
Austin Leck, another 1998 Carson grad, hit a solo home run to give San Mateo its fourth run in that game.
Feather River now advances to a four-team regional final this weekend in Fresno, Calif., and opens with an 11 a.m. game on Friday against Canada from the Bay Area. College of the Sequoias (Visalia) and Fresno City will play in the other first-round game.
The survivor from the regional will advance to the state final four the following week in Fresno.
