The West Hills College baseball team got its first taste of competition of the 2017 season on Friday afternoon. West Hills dropped the game by a score of 13-4 vs. Hartnell College.

"Today was a good day for our team despite the outcome," said Falcons Head Coach Stefan McGovern. "We did many things positive and we got a lot of players into the game. We know we have to pitch better to be successful and we now have another opportunity tomorrow to go out and show how we can handle adversity."

Freshman Chad Gotto took the bump for the Falcons in game one. Gotto allowed six hits and five runs, while also striking out four Panther batters in his three and one thirds innings pitched. Hartnell got on the board early by crossing two runs in the top of the first inning. The Panthers followed up with another run in the top of the second.

In the bottom of the second inning Jeffrey Torres got the Falcons going with a leadoff double down the left field line. Torres was then driven in by a Matt Siedem single to right field. A Panther error off the bat of Brandon Hernandez later scored Jake Lorenzini and made the score 3-2 in favor of Hartnell.

After a 6 run fourth inning, the Falcons found themselves down 9 to 2. RBI singles from both Hernandez and Evan Richards plated two more West Hills runs in their bottom half of the fourth inning, but that would end the Falcons scoring.

The Falcons season-opening series will continue Saturday, Jan. 28 in Salinas CA. First pitch of game two is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.

Written by Trent Bollman

For live updates follow @whcbaseball on Twitter.

Match Up: West Hills College (0-1) vs. Hartnell College (1-0)

Game 1: West Hills 4 – Hartnell 13

Game 2: Saturday Jan. 28 – 1:00 p.m.

Location: Keith Scrivner Field, Coalinga CA.

Next Home Game: Saturday, February 4 vs. Barstow College