The No. 15 Long Beach City College baseball team took to its home diamond on Thursday evening to face off against the No. 8 Orange Coast College Pirates for the third time this season. Just like the previous two meetings, the Pirates displayed powerful offense and solid pitching that the Vikings failed to match en route to a 12-5 defeat.
Freshman starter Josh Agnew (Long Beach, CA) earned his sixth start of the season and struggled through the majority of his outing. Despite tossing a scoreless frame in the top of the first inning, the Pirates tagged him with eight runs off nine hits. He allowed two round-trippers in the top of the second inning.
The Viking offense was spotty, but they were able to plate five runs. Two of those runs came in the bottom of the third inning as sophomore right fielder Jared Mayeda (Cypress, CA) connected for a single down the right-field line, scoring sophomore shortstop Antonio Monroy (Maywood, CA). Freshman third baseman Reese Berberet (Fallbrook, CA) came around to score with two outs in the inning off an errant through from the Pirates shortstop, bringing the score to 3-2 after three innings.
The Vikings tacked on another run in the bottom of the fourth inning with a sacrifice groundout off the bat of Monroy, scoring freshman catcher Zach Martinez (Lakewood, CA). Sophomore designated hitter Andrew Jaekel (Lakewood, CA) touched home in the bottom of the fifth inning off another defensive blunder from Orange Coast.
After the Pirates worked to earn a 12-4 advantage leading into the bottom of the ninth, Long Beach added just one more run with freshman left fielder Collin Perez (Long Beach, CA) knocking home sophomore first baseman Vincent Byrd II (Sacramento, CA), pushing the score to 12-5. Ultimately, the final score read 12-5 in the Pirates' favor.
Jaekul paced the Vikings at the plate by going 2-for-4 with a double, RBI, and a run scored.
The Vikings (5-5) will face off against the West L.A. Cougars tomorrow at home. First pitch is set for 2 p.m.