Condors Win With Wild, Frantic Finish on Senior Night

The Condors beat the Saratoga Falcons 7-6 on Senior Night to cap off the extra-innings comeback and add a highlight to the season.

“The good, the bad, and the ugly,” the often-used idiom aptly describes the chaos that unfolded during Tuesday afternoon’s baseball game between the MacDonald Condors and the Saratoga Falcons. While the large crowd witnessed plenty of the latter two adjectives, in the end, all that truly mattered was the abundance of good.

Celebrating their first-ever senior night, the MacDonald Condors came away with a walk-off, extra-innings victory. A difficult season for both the Condors and the Falcons comes to an end later this week, but on Tuesday, both learned the biggest lesson of all with athletic competition, another famous idiom- “It ain’t over until the fat lady sings.”

Despite being flummoxed by a devastating breaking ball from Condors starting pitcher Connor Roberts, the Falcons battled back from a 4-1 deficit in the sixth inning. Saratoga hadn’t picked up a clean base hit until the sixth but scratched across a run to pull within two. Down to their final three outs, the Falcons dropped a crooked number, scoring five in the top of the seventh to take a 6-4 lead.

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All of a sudden, trailing by two after leading by multiple runs, the Condors could have dropped their heads. Instead, they came storming back with two runs of their own to equalize, the tying run crossing home plate with a two-out knock from AJ Troxell.

After conceding three hit batsmen in the seventh inning, Condors’ pitcher Jonathan Adame bounced back brilliantly by going three up, three down, to keep things tied going into the bottom of the eighth.

The hero to end the night was Xzavier Segovia, whose swinging bunt down the first-base line knocked home the winning run from third. It was a wild, frantic finish and one that won’t soon be forgotten.

For Head Coach Robert Maes’ team, the spirit and excitement to play and celebrate like their big-league heroes made for a memorable night. While being interviewed after the game, the rest of the MacDonald roster dumped water and Gatorade on Roberts in celebration of the win and his performance on the mound, copying a move that San Francisco Giants star Willy Adames has become known for here in the Bay Area.

While neither the Condors nor the Falcons will be going to the CCS playoffs, both teams learned life lessons. And for MacDonald seniors Pablo Guzman, Connor Roberts, Caleb Fish and Andrew Martin, they’ll have memories of a wild win on senior night to close out their high school careers. MacDonald’s first-ever senior class in school history finished off senior night with a come-from-behind victory that left coach Maes impressed.

“We were just telling them to stick to the approach, stick to the plan,” remarked coach Maes on the pep talk going into the bottom of the seventh after losing the lead. “They knew what to do and they executed. It felt great to see it all happen. The seniors took it to heart and were strong leaders in the dugout going into those at-bats. It was great to see them all come together in the end like that.”

“Definitely a lot of appreciation for all these guys,” added Roberts postgame on the support from both his teammates and the family and friends who came out to support on senior night. “Every single one of us steps up and plays a big role on this team. We definitely learned to not give up and never quit, just play to the end, because as you saw tonight, you never know what can happen. I’m really proud of this team and how far we came.”