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Mike Coladonato drove
home Chris Cordova with the winning run on a
sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 14th
inning to lead the Long Beach City College baseball
team to a 4-3 South Coast Conference victory over
Cerritos College at Joe Hicks Field in Long Beach on
Saturday afternoon. The win drops the Falcons to
11-8 overall and 2-1 in the conference, while the
Vikings won their eighth in a row and are now 15-5
on the season and 3-0 in conference play.
Both teams had their
chances to score in the extra innings, but the
Vikings took advantage of a walk, balk and double
steal to set up their winning run. Cordova drew a
lead-off walk against Falcon freshman pitcher
Robbie
Dominguez (El Rancho HS) to start the
14th inning. He was taken out after
pitching 7 2/3 of magnificent relief work. In came
sophomore
Sheldon
McGregor (La Mirada HS), who
committed a balk to move Cordova to second base.
After a strikeout and intentional walk to Daniel
Prieto, the two pulled off a double steal. That set
up another intentional walk to Tommy Peale, before
Coladonato drove the first pitch to deep center
field, which brought home Cordova.
After spotting the
Vikings a 3-0 lead on three unearned runs, Cerritos
fought their way back into the game. In the top of
the sixth inning, freshman third baseman
Jose
Serrano (Artesia HS) reached base on
an error and moved to second on a wild pitch.
Sophomore second baseman
Dan Luyben
(Lakewood HS) then doubled him home and came
around to score on a double by sophomore outfielder
Phil
Van Doren (La Mirada HS). The Falcons
tied the game in the next inning on a two-out double
by freshman outfielder
Andrew
Baslow (Chatsworth HS), which scored
freshman outfielder Nick Armstrong (Marina
HS), who singled and moved to second on a
throwing error by the catcher on a failed pick-off
attempt.
It was two errors that
gave the Vikings their 3-0 lead against sophomore
Cerritos starter
Brad Schwarzenbach (St. John Bosco HS).
After walking Coladonato in the second inning, his
pick-off attempt was wild, which advanced the runner
to third base. After another walk, Jon Rodriguez
singled home the game’s first run before
Schwarzenbach worked out of the jam. In the fifth,
Ryan Averkeiff led off with a single for Long Beach
City and moved to second on a sacrifice. The next
batter, A.J. Bancroft singled to left field, where
Baslow’s throw to third was wild, which allowed
Averkeiff to score and advance Bancroft to second
base. Prieto followed with a double to make the
score, 3-0.
There was some fine
pitching by both teams on the day, As LBCC’s Shane
Minor pitched seven innings of three-hit ball to
earn the win, while starter Josh Williams went seven
innings and struck out five, while allowing just
five hits. For the Falcons, Dominguez gave up just
three hits in his 7 2/3 innings and struck out two
while walking five (three intentionally).
Schwarzenbach allowed three unearned runs and gave
up eight hits in his 5 1/3 inning.
At the plate, Prieto and
Rodriguez had three hits for Long Beach City, while
Baslow, Luyben and Van Doren each collected two hits
for the Falcons. |
