Banning Baseball Gives Up Late Rally

Banning High’s baseball season came to an end on Tuesday.

The 12-3 loss to Rubidoux doesn’t officially end the season for the Broncos – they play one last time on Thursday – but the loss dashed any hope of a playoff berth that would extend the season.

“That was it, we’re done,” Banning Coach Chris Reyes said after the loss. “We had to win this one and the next one. Now all we can do is go out and play that last one and try to end it on a high note.”

A rough season seemingly fell into place over the last two weeks. The Broncos entered this final week of the regular season having won four of their last five games and, with a two-game sweep of Rubidoux, could have locked up a third place finish and qualified for the playoffs.

Instead the Broncos (5-9, 9-14) gave up nine runs in the final two innings and will likely settle for a fourth place finish.

The game, however, took a bad turn well before it began. A group of seniors, four starters, were not allowed to play part of the game after breaking team rules.

“I woke up this morning and was excited about playing this game,” Reyes said. “Then I get the call from the school. You have to be held accountable. There is no way getting around it.”

Rubidoux led 3-2 in the fifth when Banning tied the game when Gilbert Hernandez stole home to tie it at 3. But Banning fell apart in the following inning where it gave up five runs and another four in the next inning.

“The game really is how the season went for us,” Reyes said. “We’d do some good things and then it would all fall apart.”