The freshman Giants fell behind early but rallied for a rain-shortened 8-4 win against Casa Grande in their home opener at Endriss Field. Ben Cohen and Tommy Quanstrom combined to no hit the Gauchos through five innings.

A steady drizzle throughout the game made playing conditions difficult, and wet baseballs and a deteriorating pitching mound contributed to some uncharacteristic wildness from the Giants pitchers, with all of Casa Grande’s runs scoring on walks in the second inning before Quanstrom settled things down, throwing three and two-thirds innings of scoreless ball.

With the Giants down 4-0 after two innings, the Giants notched two runs in the third on RBI singles by Cohen and Sam McIntosh. The decisive inning was the bottom of the fourth, when the Giants scored six runs, highlighted by RBI singles from Ethan Crawford and Jake Zesiger. Crawford and Zesiger lead the Giants in hits with two apiece. Nathan Hirsch and Bodie Jehling also had hits for the Giants. Cohen, McIntosh and Zesiger each had two RBIs.

For the week of March 5-9, the Giants will play Bishop O’Dowd on Monday, March 5 (this game is the rescheduled date for the game that was rained out on March 2), Petaluma on Tuesday, March 6 and Monte Vista on Thursday, March 8. All games are at 3:30 PM at Endriss Field.