The Bakersfield Condors had quite a momentum swing to close out their schedule in what was a solid January.
Coming off a 2-1 overtime road loss at Henderson last Wednesday, Bakersfield hosted Canada’s Abbotsford Canucks for home games on Friday and Saturday nights. Bakersfield won both, a 7-2 triumph Friday and 3-2 victory in regulation on Saturday.
Saturday’s game was important as a back-to-back game. It’s tough to get that second win in a row. The Condors came through on the same night they inducted defenseman Erik Burgdoerfer into the Condors Hall of Fame. Burgdoerfer, who played from 2009-14 when it was an ECHL team, joined Steve Dowhy, Jamie Cooke, Andrew Ianiero, Glen Mears, Paul Rosebush and Paul Willett.
For the second night in a row, James Hamblin scored the game’s first goal at 4:36 of the first period on assists from Quinn Hutson and Tyler Inamoto for a quick Condors lead. It was Hamblin’s 13th tally of the season. The score that stayed that way until Abbotsford’s Lukas Reichel scored the lone goal of the second period. It stayed 1-1 until the Condors scored twice in less than a minute apart. Viljami Marjala scored his 12th of the year on an assist from Roby Jarventie at 10:39. Jarventie scored his 14th at 11:20 from Marjala and Brady Stonehouse for what was an insurance goal.
Reichel scored his second of the game at 15:59 to cut the lead to 3-2.
But the Canucks could get nothing else past Bakersfield goaltender Connor Ungar, who recorded a single-game record of 51 saves on 53 shots to improve his record to 7-1-0-1 since his arrival in late December. Bakersfield had only 24 shots on Abbotsford netminder Jiri Patera.
Friday’s game was much different. Bakersfield scored five goals in the first period en route to recording the team’s largest win margin of the season and marked the fourth time Bakersfield has scored at least seven goals in a game.
Hamblin, Marjala, Damien Carfagna, Seth Griffith and Max Jones scored in the opening period. Jarventie and Sam Poulin each had a power-play goal in the third period. Abbotsford scored both goals in the third and both were on the power play.
Griffith finished with a three-point night as he also assisted on Marjala and Jones’ goals. Hamblin, Jarventie and Poulin each had a goal and an assist. Issac Howard had two assists.
Following Saturday’s victory, Bakersfield was alone in third place in the AHL Pacific Division standings with 55 points (24-12-7-0). Colorado leads the division with 60 points and the Ontario Reign have 58 points and are in second place.
Bakersfield returns to action at 6:30 p.m. today when it will host Calgary for the first game of February. The Condors and Reign will then meet in an important home-and-home, back-to-back series. Bakersfield is home at 7 p.m. Friday, then 6 p.m. Saturday at Ontario.
BC M/W Basketball
The men and women’s basketball teams traveled to Santa Monica on Saturday for Western State Conference doubleheader play. The Renegades swept the Corsairs, with the BC men getting four players to score in double figures in an 83-74 triumph, and the BC women did the same and had no let up in a 107-46 rout.
The BC men improved to 13-9 overall, 5-3 in the WSC with Zach Garnett scoring 22, Elijah Wade with 15, Zykiar Henderson with 14 points and 11 rebounds and, off the bench, Godwill Fomusoh had 12 points. BC has now won three straight entering Wednesday’s 5 p.m. road WSC game at West L.A.
The women’s team, led by Danika Tolentino’s 23 points, improved to 15-7 and is now 7-1 in WSC play. Jamie Neaderbaomer and Alexia Ramirez each had 18 and Lailene Araniva 17. Tolentino, Ramirez and Araniva each had nine rebounds.
BC women play at 7 p.m. Wednesday at West L.A.
BC Softball
The Renegades played a home-opening three games in two days, and went 1-2. BC edged Fresno City 5-4 in eight innings, Friday early, but lost a two-day doubleheader against Fullerton, 6-1 Friday night and 8-0 on Saturday afternoon.
After Fresno tied the game at 4 in the seventh inning, Cambria Scott singled and Ava Velasquez pinch-ran in the eighth. Velasquez moved to third with two outs and scored on a wild pitch.
The visiting Hornets limited BC’s offense to four hits in Friday night’s game, the lone run coming on a solo home run by catcher Andrea Barajas in the second inning. Fullerton had a three-run fifth inning to put the game away. On Saturday, Fullerton pitcher Emma Gamez struck out 11, limited BC to three hits and a walk in a complete-game effort. BC pitchers Elizabeth Alderete and Maddy Ortiz gave up the eight runs on nine hits and combined for five walks.
BC plays at 1 p.m. today at Moorpark. BC hosts Ventura and Riverside in single games on Saturday, 11:30 a.m. for Ventura, 4:30 for Riverside.
BC Baseball
The Renegades lost their first game of the season, a 5-1 road defeat against Modesto.
Landon McDonald continued his hot streak offensively, hitting a solo home run in the fourth inning to seize the lead early, but Modesto tied it in the bottom of the fourth and then had a four-run fifth inning to pull away.
BC (4-1) had only three hits and McDonald accounted for a single to go with the home run. Modesto had seven hits, including five and all five runs scored against BC starter Jadyn Hernandez.
The Renegades will host Cerritos for three games this week — at 6 p.m. Thursday, at 5 p.m. Friday and at noon Saturday — at Gerry Collis Field.
BC M/W Tennis
The Renegade men had little trouble defeating Porterville on Friday, winning two doubles and five singles matches and the visiting Pirates forfeited one doubles and one singles match.
BC (2-0) got singles victories from Zeb Duket, Orlando Vankan, Chin Wu, Anthony Renteria and Bruce Jaime. Doubles victories were from Vitale Chibac and Vankan and Duket and Renteria. BC lost only four games in singles and three in doubles.
Meanwhile, later Friday, the 2025 3C2A state runner-up BC women’s tennis team opened its 2026 season with a 6-3 victory over Porterville, also at home. Last season BC went undefeated until losing close in the state title match.
The Renegade men return to the court for two road matches, 1 p.m. today at Reedley and 2 p.m. Thursday at Riverside. The women have a 1 p.m. match today at home against Santa Barbara.
BC M/W Track and Field
A young BC track and field roster — only three sophomores are on the team — turned in several strong performances in a season-opening event hosted by Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa last Friday.
Among the highlights were Marilu Flores, who had top finishes in the 60-meter dash (second) and 200 (fourth). Sofia Moody was third in the 5,000.
BC was good in throwing events — hammer, shot put, discus and javelin. Daniel Olvera was second in the discus, and Julian Vargas took third in the hammer. Mason Level was third in the javelin and Donovan Garcia was sixth in the shot put.
BC will compete at 9 a.m. Friday in a meet hosted at Moorpark College.
BC Women’s Beach Volleyball
The Renegades lost both matches they had in Santa Barbara last Friday, losing 5-0 to Fresno City in the opener and then a hard-fought 3-2 loss to Hartnell College. The Renegades are now 1-3. They play Rio Hondo and Cypress this Friday at Rosie’s Dog Beach, which is located in Long Beach. BC and Rio Hondo play at 10 a.m. and BC and Cypress play at noon.