Rubalcaba goes 4-5; McBride gets first win in 7-3 road triumph

Catcher Alonzo Rubalcaba went 4-5 on Thursday and Jake McBride pitched the last five innings as SBCC downed Oxnard 7-3 for its fifth straight baseball win.

The Vaqueros (17-11, 10-7) inched closer to first in the WSC North, thanks to Cuesta's 5-2 win over Ventura. Ventura leads the conference at 11-6 and SBCC and Cuesta are one game back (10-7) with three to play. The top two teams will qualify for the Southern Cal Regional.
 
SBCC snapped a 2-2 tie with a five-run fifth inning. Pat Caulfield had an RBI single and Nicholas Trifiletti (2-4) drilled a key two-run single for the second straight game. Jacob Bravo added a sacrifice fly in the fifth and Trifiletti scored on an error for a 7-2 lead.

The Vaqueros are unbeaten in April and extended their season-high win streak to five straight. They're 11-2 when scoring six or more runs. Oxnard fell to 12-19-1 and 5-12.

Jake McBride, who "opened" Tuesday's 4-2 win over Cuesta by pitching the first two innings, relieved starter Dylan Porter in the fifth. McBride, a 6-5 freshman from Dos Pueblos High, held the Condors to one unearned run on four hits in the last five innings to pick up his first college win. He struck out four and didn't walk a batter.

McBride, who's allowed one earned run in 11.1 innings, lowered his ERA to 0.79.

Rubalcaba had three singles and a leadoff double in the fourth. Tommy Holguin (2-5) had an RBI single in the third and Nicholas Prainito's single brought in Rubalcaba for a 2-0 lead in the fourth.

The Vaqueros will play a non-conference game at L.A. Valley on Friday at 2:30 p.m., then return to Pershing Park on Saturday for a 1 p.m. game against Oxnard.