Baseball Wins First Postseason Game 13-3 Over San Diego Mesa
By Jimmy Friery
RIVERSIDE, Calif. – The Santa Barbara City College Baseball team cruised to a 13-3 victory over San Diego Mesa on Friday in game one of the SoCal Regional hosted by Riverside City College.
After being down 3-0 in the third inning, the Vaqueros scored 13 answered runs as Adam Tripp threw 5.1 scoreless innings in relief to give the team an opening postseason win.
As the higher seed at the neutral site, Santa Barbara was the home team. But just two batters into the game, Mesa had a 1-0 advantage thanks to an error and run-scoring double.
Mesa tacked on a run in both the second and third—both with two outs. It was 3-0 heading into the bottom of the third.
The Vaqueros took advantage of a handful of freebies gifted to them in that half-inning. Lucas Carlisle led off reaching on an error from the shortstop, and, after an out, the next two batters walked to load the bases. Parker Hellekson's RBI single got the Vaqueros on the board, followed by an Elijah Garcia RBI on another error from the shortstop. William Matuszak then walked with the bases loaded, and a wild pitch scored the fourth and final run of the inning. Thus, it was 4-3 Santa Barbara after three.
Hellekson was clutch again in the fourth, driving in two on a two-out triple. The Vaqueros then got another in the fifth thanks to more freebies. A walk, error, wild pitch, and Carlisle's RBI groundout made it 7-3.
Continuing the theme, Hellekson once again drove in the first run of the sixth. Garcia's RBI double and Matuszak's RBI groundout put the Vaqueros up 10-3, really establishing some breathing room.
If that was not enough, Cole Ide's two-run homer and another RBI single from Garcia gave the Vaqueros a 10-run lead after seven.
Tripp ended his strong outing with a clean eighth inning, on the way to earning the win. Drew Cappel finished the 13-3 win with a scoreless ninth.
Hellekson drove in four runs on three hits with a walk. Bradley Cekada did the inverse of that, scoring all four times he reached base—three singles and a walk.
Carlisle and Garcia each added two hits and Matuszak was a good leadoff hitter, walking three times.
Mesa then had to win an elimination game against the top-seeded hosts, Riverside, which they did 10-9—thanks to a six-run ninth inning. So, the Vaqueros and Riverside will play at 11 a.m. on Saturday in what is a win-or-go-home game for the hosts. Regardless of the result, the Vaqueros will play Mesa at 3 p.m. later on Saturday.