Gutsy Vaqueros Win Another Important Series Over Pierce

By Jimmy Friery

LOS ANGELES – The Santa Barbara City College Baseball team (18-14, 13-5) once again won a crucial Western State Conference (WSC) North series this week, winning two out of three against fellow title contender Pierce (21-12, 12-6). Despite losing the first game at home 8-5, the Vaqueros won the final two on the road 8-3 and 7-5.

The Vaqueros end the three-game series portion of the conference schedule having won every series.

Tuesday, game one: Pierce 8, Santa Barbara 5

With the benefit of hindsight, Santa Barbara did a great job not allowing the series opener to affect the rest of the week. The only home game of the series, the Vaqueros were uncharacteristically always chasing the Brahmas.

After a sacrifice fly got Pierce a run in the top of the second, a two-run homer made it 3-0 in the third. The Vaqueros responded in the bottom half, though, through William Matuszak, who ripped an RBI double and later scored on a wild pitch.

Pierce tacked on another run in the fifth with back-to-back two-out hit-by-pitches to make it 4-2 to the visitors.

In the sixth, Santa Barbara tied it as Wylan Nelson scored on an effective first-and-third play before Bradley Cekada's run-scoring single.

Pierce scored two on an error in the eighth, restoring their lead to 6-4. Cekada hit another RBI single in the bottom half—now 6-5—but Pierce countered with a two-run single in the next half-inning. That score would hold to the 8-5 final.

Errors plagued the Vaqueros as all five of the bullpen's runs allowed were unearned.

Thursday, game two: Santa Barbara 8, Pierce 3

Traveling to Pierce after the loss, the Vaqueros had the advantage of Nelson being on the mound. In the 11 games that he has pitched, he is 7-0 with a 2.18 ERA. On, and in those games, he has hit 20-for-38 (.526) with three homers and 14 RBIs.

Nelson was the trail runner in a double steal that scored Matuszak in the third, sandwiched between two Pierce runs.

But the Vaqueros did most of their damage in a seven-run seventh. Down 2-1 at the time, Matuszak's RBI triple tied the game. As the next batter, Nelson's RBI single put himself in line for the win. After Lucas Carlisle's single and Cole Ide's hit-by-pitch, Cekada smacked a two-run single to increase the lead. Then, Sean Asperger capped the rally with a three-run homer, giving Santa Barbara an 8-2 advantage.

Pierce hit a consolation homer in the eighth to get to the 8-3 final.

Friday, game three: Santa Barbara 7, Pierce 5

That set up the rubber game on Friday at Pierce, which was originally scheduled for Saturday at Pershing Park before it was switched in case of rain.

Despite the adversity, the Vaqueros remained focused. Down 1-0 in the fourth, Nathaniel Gomez (single), Damos Deworken (single), and Matuszak (another triple) drove in three runs to give Santa Barbara the lead. The visitors tacked on in the fifth thanks to a two-out, two-run error by the Pierce center fielder to make it 5-1 Vaqueros.

Pierce scored a run in each of the bottom of the fifth and sixth to bring it to a closer 5-3. In the eighth, Ide's two-out single plated an insurance run before Matuszak remarkably stole home, now 7-3 Vaqueros.

Max Collins was on the mound for Santa Barbara after Cooper Tinkey opened the first two innings. Collins gave up a two-out, two-run triple in the bottom of the eighth, but induced a groundout to keep it 7-5 heading to the ninth.

After the Vaqueros did not score, three outs were between them and another gutsy series win. A hit-by-pitch and two singles loaded the bases with two outs, putting the winning run on first. Collins emphatically struck out the final batter, though, as the Vaqueros took the bus home with two road victories.

Collins' final line was seven innings in relief allowing just one walk and three earned runs but earning nine strikeouts and the win.

In the standings, Hancock (25-9, 14-4) ends the weekend one game ahead of Santa Barbara, but the Vaqueros still control their own destiny. Playing each WSC North team one more time, they host Hancock and Pierce on back-to-back days on what could be a photo finish to end the regular season.

Before that, the Vaqueros next travel to Moorpark on Tuesday and return to Pershing Park on Thursday at 2 p.m. against Cuesta.