College of the Canyons was served a tough pill to swallow in the opening game of the California Community College Athletic Association Southern California Super Regional, with the Cougars letting a five-run ninth-inning lead slip away to fall by an 8-7 final score to Grossmont College.

Canyons (24-17) and Grossmont (23-17) were meeting for the first time in program history in the Super Regional hosted by Southwestern College. COC was the No. 2 seed in the three-team, double elimination tourney, with No. 3 Grossmont and host No. 1 Southwestern.

The Cougars scored an early run on Alex Sepulveda’s RBI base hit in the second inning that scored Colin Yeaman for a 1-0 advantage.

Canyons extended the lead at 2-0 on an attempted sacrifice bunt from Dane Flashberg in the fifth inning that led to a costly Grossmont fielding error and an unearned run for the Cougars.

Charlie Rocca , Andy Ambriz and Yeaman also drove home runs in the inning to put Canyons in charge at 5-0. Ambriz’ RBI-double extended his hit streak to 19 games.

Meanwhile, COC sophomore starter Gavino Rosales was superb in his seven innings on the hill. Rosales did not factor into the final decision but scattered eight hits and a walk with five strikeouts, allowing just a pair of runs to the Griffins.

Grossmont did its only damage vs. Rosales with RBI singles from Luke Denos and Skylar Agnew in the sixth inning.

Griffins’ starting pitcher Kyle Dobyns battled for his seven innings of work and was charged with five runs, four earned, on 11 hits and a walk before giving way to the Grossmont bullpen.

Canyons added a pair of what appeared to be insurance runs in the eighth inning on another run-scoring single from Ambriz and an RBI single that plated Andrew Allanson for a 7-2 lead heading into the ninth inning.

In what proved to be a nightmare of an inning for Canyons, the Griffins managed to get the first two batters on base before Juan Nunez cleared the bases to make it a 7-4 ballgame.

COC reliever Jon Bahr walked the next batter before giving way to Jake Schwartz who started the game at first base. From there, Grossmont collected four straight run-scoring hits to hang six runs in the inning and seize a late 8-7 lead.

Xavier Stoker was eventually called upon to get Canyons out of the jam, recording a pair of strikeouts in the process.

The Cougars managed to get two base runners aboard in the ninth but couldn’t find the tying run.

Grossmont reliever Caleb Harris (4-1) earned the win for his inning of work that included three hits and two earned runs. Bradley Barkley earned the save, his ninth of the year.

Top Performers

Andy Ambriz — 2-for-5, 2B, R, 2 RBI

Jovan Camacho — 2-for-5, BB, 2 R

Charlie Rocca — 1-for-4, BB, 2 R

Gavino Rosales — 7 IP, 8 H, 2 ER, BB, 5 K

Colin Yeaman — 4-for-5, R, RBI

Stay up to date on all this season’s action by visiting the College of the Canyons Athletic department and following on social media at @COCathletics on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.