Hill, Barry pace 12-1 rout of Ventura

SBCC continued its Jekyll and Hyde, home-and-away offense on Thursday in a 12-1 baseball rout of Ventura at Pershing Park.

The Vaqueros, ranked No. 7 in Southern Cal, are 9-1 at home and 4-4 on the road. They're hitting .308 at home and score nearly three more runs a game at Pershing (7.4) than they do on the road (4.6).

"It's either feast or famine with us and it's famine on the road and feast at home," stated coach Jeff Walker. "We set the tone early. Barry throws up a zero (after Ventura had runners at first and second with one out in the first) and Cam Jones leads off with a triple. Everything fell into place from there and we chased a very good pitcher in the second inning. He came in leading the conference strikeouts and he only had one today."

SBCC improved to 14-5 overall and 6-4 in the WSC North, tied with L.A. Pierce for third. They're one game behind the leaders, Oxnard and Cuesta (7-3).

Ventura's left-handed starter Jackson Simonsgaard was touched for seven runs on six hits in two innings of work. Sean Barry (3-2) held the Pirates (5-14, 2-8) to two singles in six innings with 12 strikeouts and two walks. He retired the last 11 batters he faced and struck out seven.

"I settled in and trusted our defense," said Barry, who lowered his ERA to 1.35 and leads the WSC North with 42 strikeouts in 40 innings. "It's easy to get comfortable when we score 12 runs. I like strikeouts and today was a good day.

"My fastball was working well and the slider was my 2-strike pitch. Our hitters stepped up big-time today."

After getting blanked 3-0 on three hits on Tuesday at Ventura, the Vaqueros erupted for 12 runs in the first four innings on Thursday. James Hill was 2-2 with three RBIs, Jake Gagain, a transfer from UCSB, went 3-4 with two RBIs and Noeh Martinez had two of his team's 12 hits.

Gagain took over the team lead in batting at .357 and Hill is hitting .351.

SBCC scored twice in the first on Jones' triple and a wild pitch, followed by a walk to Matt Henderson (1-3, 2 RBIs, 2 runs), a groundout, a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly by Hill. Spencer Erdman and Henderson had RBI singles in the second and Hill drove in two with a long double to right-center that made it 7-0.

"We've played inconsistent lately but today was a testament to our coaches and our guys, the way we prepared," said Hill, a sophomore catcher from Monterey. "It was tough losing two games in a row. We have a lot of good things ahead of us.

"I just try to catch the ball out in front and be on time," said Hill of his two-RBI double. "I'm just a small piece of the puzzle. This was a great team win.

"Sean is just a freak, he really knows what he's doing. He gets up on the mound with a lot of confidence and he trusts the guys behind him. As a result, he gets a lot of Ks because he knows if he throws strikes, we're going to win a lot of ball games."

SBCC lowered its team ERA to 2.00, which is No. 2 in Southern Cal and No. 4 in the state.

The Vaqueros benefitted from nine walks by five Ventura pitchers and also stole five bases, including two by leadoff hitter Cameron Jones.

"We're a prideful group and we play with a lot of confidence at home," said Walker. "That was an outstanding job by Sean against a bunch of guys who faced him in high school. I think they came in knowing they were in for a long day.

"We got guys on, got 'em over and got 'em in. It was a good, all-around team win."

The Vaqueros host Hancock on Saturday at 1 p.m.