By Paul Gadbois - redbluffbaseball.com

Friday, April 18 - @ Foothill

Perhaps they were still glowing from the victory two days earlier, but the Red Bluff varsity baseball team didn't seem too interested in competing Friday against rival Foothill, striking out looking seven times in a 3-1 defeat.
The Spartans fanned a total of 11 times and managed just four hits against Cougars starter Shane Cadaret and reliever Andrew Milner — a sophomore who was recently called up from Foothill's JV squad.
Daniel Zelwick, who hadn't started on the mound in a month due to soreness in his arm, carried the Spartans into the fifth inning with a solid performance. He held the Cougars to four hits as well, but two of the four walks he issued were critical, as they came early in the innings and led to runs. Foothill generated a 2-0 lead in this fashion by the second inning.
Cadaret walked with one out in the first, stole second, took third on Jared Bogue's grounder to the right side and scored on a single from Nick Parent.
Casey Robertson drew a leadoff walk in the second, advanced on Jimmy Dobson's sacrifice and scored on David Radcliffe's RBI single.
The Spartans cut their deficit in half in the third inning, starting with a leadoff walk drawn by Ben Redfield. He stole second base and scored on a two-out single by Zelwick.
Trailing 2-1, Red Bluff had a runner in scoring position in the next three innings but couldn't score. Lance Zazueta singled and stole second in the fourth, Redfield was pelted by a pitch and stole second in the fifth and Josh Penne walked and stole second in the sixth. But by either strikeouts or infield pop-ups, the Spartans squandered these opportunities and were suddenly down to their final chance.
In the meantime, Foothill extended its lead as Ratcliffe singled, stole second and scored on Cole Johnston's base hit.
Stanton hit a single to lead off the seventh inning for Red Bluff, Redfield bunted him over to second and Cody Gappa singled to put runners at the corners, but Stephen Collins lined into a double play to end the game.
Red Bluff left five men on base in the game and all of them were in scoring position, in different innings.
The Spartans (6-3 EAL, 16-4) hope to regain their stroke on Tuesday when Paradise visits. They also have a doubleheader on Friday at Enterprise.

Red Bluff 001 000 0 — 1 4 1
Foothill 110 100 x — 3 4 0
 
RED BLUFF IP H R ER BB SO
Zelwick (L, 2-2) 4.1 4 3 3 4 1
Annis 1.2 0 0 0 0 2

Top hitters:
Zelwick 1X3, RBI; Zazueta 1X3, SB; Stanton 1X3; Gappa 1X3