The No. 15 Long Beach City College baseball team traveled to Cypress, CA to face off against the top-ranked Cypress College Chargers on Tuesday afternoon. Despite holding the Cypress offense to just a pair of runs, the Vikings faltered in a pitchers dual thus handing them a 2-1 defeat.
Sophomore hurler Cesar Gomez (Long Beach, CA) climbed the hill for the start for the first time this season and performed exceptionally well. He made a statement the first half inning he chuked by retiring the side in order.
However, the Chargers were able to push across a run the following inning to face the Vikings with an early one-run deficit.
Gomez continued to battle on the rubber by blanking the Chargers in the third inning, but allowed one more run to come across in the bottom of the fourth inning to extend the Viking deficit to 2-0.
Long Beach plated their first run of the game in the top of the fifth inning with freshman left fielder Collin Perez (Long Beach, CA) squaring up a double to left field. Perez came around to score on a single to right field off the barrel of freshman catcher Zach Martinez (Lakewood, CA) to bring the score to 2-1.
The LBCC bullpen was electric through the final four frames that began with a pair of innings in relief from freshman Jacob Gregg (Lakewood, CA) who tossed two scoreless frames and did not allow a hit. He struck out a batters as well. Freshman Angel Delgadillo (Norwalk, CA) came in for the final two frames and matched his teammate's efforts by not allowing a hit and fanning a batter.
Despite the lockdown pitching, the Viking offense was unable to capitalize leading to a 2-1 defeat.
The Vikings stranded two runners on base in the game with one coming in the seventh inning and another in the eighth inning.
Gomez (0-1) was tagged with the loss after chucking four effective innings. He utilized his defense who did not make a single error.
Sophomore designated hitter Jared Mayeda (Cypress, CA) went 2-for-3 on the day, while Martinez matched his efforts with a 2-for-3 showing as well. Martinez had the lone RBI as well.
Long Beach (5-4) will return home on Thursday, February 23 to face off against the No. 8 Orange Coast College Pirates for the third time this season. Game time is set for 2 p.m.