The Sinclair Community College baseball team is one win away from its second consecutive OCCAC Championship after defeating Owens Community College 11-6 on Friday, April 30.
The Tartan Pride scored the game’s first seven runs on just one hit, a 2-run homer by outfielder Zach Stewart. But Owens fought back, hitting two home runs of their own in the fifth, cutting the lead to 7-6, chasing starting pitcher Zach Botjer from the game.
Perhaps inspired by professional wrestler Hulk Hogan’s theme music “Real American,” which was played after the 5th inning, the Tartan Pride came back in the top of the sixth with three runs of their own.
“I didn’t even pay any attention to the (Hulk Hogan theme) music, but that’s a great song,” said Tartan Pride coach Steve Dintaman. “We had really good at-bats. There were a lot of 0-2 counts where our guys battled their (butts) off to get walks and get free bases.”
Tartan Pride closer Chuck Calhoun sealed the win with a scoreless seventh inning.
“Chuck’s been our go to guy out of the bullpen all year long and he’s been outstanding,” Dintaman said. “He came in and did the job.”
Sinclair will play again at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 1, when they take on the winner of Lakeland vs. Owens. Freshman pitcher Jeremiah Kerns will get the start for Sinclair.
“Our pitching will be there, we don’t have to worry about that,” Dintaman said, “but offensively we just got to keep taking good approaches.”