Bears Cubs headed to final four

The Santa Rosa Junior College baseball team is going to the CCCAA state tournament finals.

The Bear Cubs stamped their ticket Saturday at Sypher Field by defeating Chabot 5-0 to win the best-of-three section series in two games.

Two teams from Northern California and two from the south will meet in the double-elimination tournament, which starts Saturday in Fresno. Santa Rosa will open with Cypress while San Joaquin Delta and Golden West meet in the other half of the bracket.

Santa Rosa will be returning to the finals for the first time since 2013. The Bear Cubs were state champs in 2005.

Alec Rennard, the ace of the pitching staff, tossed a three-hitter Saturday. Two of those hits were infield singles. He struck out eight and walked one.

The Maria Carrillo graduate improved his record to 13-1. He was 10-1 in the regular season and has won one game in each round of the tournament.

“I was locked in from the first pitch,” he said. “All four of my pitches worked for me. I was spotting my fastball on both sides of the plate and I had command of my off-speed, slider and curveball.”

Rennard got the only run he would need in the first inning and the Bear Cubs scored without a hit. Bryce Nagata walked, stole second and came home when the Chabot second baseman made an error.

The Gladiator pitching staff helped the Bear Cubs all afternoon. They walked nine and hit two batters.

Jake Scheiner, a teammate of Rennard’s at Maria Carrillo, had a big game. He knocked a double and triple and collected three RBIs.

Santa Rosa, the top seed in the north, will take a 35-8 record to the finals. No. 10 seed Chabot ends up 27-15.