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For the second night in a row the Gold Sox struck first, this time putting up two in the second inning. Lincoln cut the lead in half in the bottom frame with a solo shot by Andrew Sloan (University of the Pacific) in his first at-bat as a Potter.

The Potters put up eight total runs in the third and fourth to build a 9-2 lead, but Yuba-Sutter rallied in the middle innings to pull ahead 10-9. Kevin Gutierrez (William Jessup) put the Potters back in the lead with a two-RBI double to put the good guys back on top. Reece Ragatz (Northern State University) added some insurance in the eighth with a towering three-run homer to close out the scoring for the night.

While manager Ryan Stevens didn’t like seeing his squad surrender eight straight, he expressed his satisfaction with how the orange and blue battled back to take game two.

“It kind of tells me what we got as a ballclub and the fight we have,” said Stevens. “The offensive explosion when the pitching was not there was huge. Tonight I was really impressed with how they handled themselves throughout the game.”

Anthony Perez (Cal State East Bay) had a strong start, but it was Makana Quia (Hawai’i Pacific University) who earned the win in relief in his Potter debut in two dominant innings. Quia allowed one run on one hit while striking out four in the contest. 

“I thought I was gonna have a bad outing because my bullpen was kind of rusty and wasn't really throwing strikes but, I got myself into game mode and it just hit me,” said Quia. "I just did what I do best.”

“Makana came in and gave us a huge two innings. He kept it small for us to try to extend the lead,” said Stevens. “We talked about working on being a backup guy and he came out and filled up the zone and that's really all we can ask for.”

Brandon Motheral (University of the Pacific) continued his dominance against his former team Saturday night, hitting his second home run of the series. The right fielder went 3-for-5 with a homer, a double, and five runs batted in. Motheral leads the Potters with 11 RBI on the season.

The Potters will look to sweep the opening series and record their twelfth straight win over the Gold Sox in tomorrow’s series finale. It is a matinee game for the first Sunday of the season, with the first pitch coming at 1:05 PM.

You can find tonight’s box score here.