El Camino tops Vaqueros again, 7-5

Andrew Cosgrove belted his first homer on Friday afternoon and Nic Bereaud hit his fifth round-tripper but SBCC still came up short against visiting El Camino, 7-5, in a nonconference baseball game at Pershing Park.

The Warriors (15-6), ranked No. 10 in Southern Cal, beat the Vaqueros for the second time in four days. They took leads of 2-0 and 3-2 but Santa Barbara (10-13) rallied to tie it at 2-2 and 3-3. Cosgrove, a sophomore catcher from Kirkland, Wash., led off the fifth by clearing the left-field fence to make it 3-3.

El Camino took advantage of Vaquero miscues all day as Santa Barbara walked nine and hit a batter. With two outs in the seventh and a runner at first, Nick Sablock hit a chopper that got past second baseman Chris Smutny for an error. The Warriors scored two unearned runs when reliever Brett Gregory issued bases-loaded walks to Jake Sahagian and Brady Dorn.

SBCC's Ian Clark and El Camino's Sebastian Sanchez had a good pitching duel. Sanchez (6-1), who got the win, gave up three runs on six hits in seven innings. Clark allowed three runs on eight hits with three strikeouts and two walks in six innings of work.

"That was a key error in the seventh," said SBCC coach Jeff Walker. "We had compound mistakes. Nine walks and a hit batter … you can't win many games with that. You have to throw strikes."

The Vaqueros got within a run at 5-4 when Bereaud, a left-handed designated hitter, blasted a homer over the right-field fence with one out in the eighth. The Vaqueros got runners to first and third on a double by Connor Clark and a walk to Nicolas Allman but pinch-hitter Jeffrey Clarke struck out for the third out.

Clark went 3-4 for the Vaqueros and Cosgrove was 2-4 with two runs.

The Warriors stretched the lead to 7-4 in the ninth on a sacrifice fly by Connor Underwood and an RBI single by Kyle Henmi (2-4).

Santa Barbara scored in the ninth when Michael Montpas walked, stole second and scored on a single to right by Jake Gagain. Sablock, a left-hander, moved from right field to the mound and struck out Bereaud on three pitches to end the game.

The 2-3-4-5 hitters had seven of the Vaqueros' nine strikeouts.

"That was our thing this week, the middle of our lineup had trouble putting the ball in play with runners in scoring position," Walker explained. "We need to throw more strikes. We gave them the game with the mistakes we made, they didn't earn it.

"We played two good teams this week (going 0-3 and losing by 1, 2 and 2 runs) and this was a good test for us. These teams (El Camino and Riverside) are better than anyone in our conference."

SBCC is still in first place in the WSC North, sharing the lead with Cuesta at 7-4. The Vaqueros return to conference play on Tuesday when they host Hancock at 2:30 p.m.