Playing like gold

The Yuba College baseball team picked a good time to play their best ball of the year.

The 49ers rolled to their sixth-straight victory by banging out 12 hits — all singles — and receiving five innings of spotless relief from Frank Chavez in a 6-3 non-league victory over Butte College at Gary Engleken Field on Monday.

The win was the 49ers' 10th in their last 12 games.

"They're playing really well," said Yuba coach Tim Gloyd. "I'd like to start the season right now."

However, things didn't start well for the 49ers as Butte came out swinging to take a quick 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning on a sacrifice fly by Trevor Dean and an RBI double by designated hitter Max Anderson.

Yuba came back to knot the game in the bottom half of the third when catcher Daniel Graning slapped a one-out single to left and scored on an RBI single by Ed Ryan.

After Ryan stole second, Jason Hamel belted an RBI single to left to tie the game at 2-2.

The Roadrunners (19-23) took a short-lived 3-2 lead in the fourth inning before the 49ers stormed back to take the lead for good in the bottom half of the inning.

Nick Gauldin and Ryan Williams started the rally with back-to-back singles before Wesley Tom loaded the bases by reaching on a fielder's choice.

Joey Gonzalez followed with a RBI single to left and Javier Solis gave Yuba the lead with clean single to center field.

Although Tom was thrown out at the plate on the play, the 49ers took a 4-3 lead they would not give back.

The rest of the game belonged to Chavez as the 5-foot-10, 180 pound freshman used his fastball, curve and changeup to retire the side in order in four of the five innings he worked.

Chavez allowed a lead-off single to Dean in sixth inning, but induced Anderson into a 6-4-3 double play on the next pitch to finish his outing by facing the minimum of 15 batters.

"I felt good today," Chavez said. "I felt confident with all three pitches and threw them where I wanted to for the most part."

Chavez started nearly every batter with a first-pitch strike, something that his coach acknowledged.

"He threw very well. He was getting ahead of the hitters and didn't walk a batter," Gloyd said. "I wasn't worried about him, that's for sure."

The 49ers (19-21 overall, 13-12 Bay Valley Conference) added two insurance runs in the sixth inning.

Williams led off the inning with a single to right and scored when Brundage misplayed Tom's single to left field for a two-base error.

Gonzalez followed with a perfect sacrifice bunt and Solis drove in the final run of the game with a base hit up the middle.

Chavez got stronger as the game went on and closed it out by blowing fastballs past the final two batters.

"I got some extra adrenaline going and started pumping it a little bit harder at the end of the game," Chavez said, adding that Graning called a great game behind the plate. "The defense played good, too — we didn't have any errors."

Williams, Tom, Solis and Graning each had two hits to lead the 49ers' offense and starting pitcher Adrian Perez allowed three runs on five hits over four innings before leaving the game with soreness in his pitching shoulder.

"We're definitely playing our best ball right now," Chavez said. "It's a lot more fun when you're winning."