SANTA BARBARA – What was a sunny Tuesday afternoon quickly turned as the cold wind brought fog and rain to Pershing Park, forcing the SBCC baseball team to fight through the elements down the stretch against West LA. The Vaqueros would overcome an early 2-1 deficit, shutting the Wildcats out over the final eight innings to take a 5-2 victory.
It was the second win in six days for the Vaqueros (5-3) over the Wildcats (1-5), who met last Thursday in a 15-3 landslide.
As conditions worsened, pitcher Decker Mac Neil only seemed to get better. He struck out six on the day, tossing for just under eight full innings. Colby Downard entered in the final two innings, giving up just one hit and earning his first save of the year.
West LA did most of its damage in the top of the first inning. The Wildcats came out with four hits on their first six at bats, scoring their only two runs of the day.
The Vaqueros answered by loading the bases in the bottom of the first. Shortstop Gabe Baldavino scored their first run on a sacrifice fly to left by right fielder Caiden Matheny.
The score remained 2-1 until a big fifth inning from the Vaqueros. They would take the lead with three runs coming from Owen Crevelt, Pearce Blaney and Max Porter, taking advantage of some West LA mistakes. Blaney also earned an RBI.
With the game speeding up as the rain poured, the Vaqueros tacked on one more in the bottom of the eighth. Following two quick outs, third baseman Gavin Haimovitz let loose on a big blast out to left field, hitting his team-leading third home run of the season to seal the three-run win.
After two straight at home, SBCC will play two games against Cerro Coso this week, beginning in a Thursday road game at 2:00 p.m.
