Early Runs Not Enough in No. 13 Baseball's Loss to East L.A.

After kicking off conference action with a series sweep against the Mt. San Antonio College Mounties this past week, the No. 13 Viking baseball team traveled to Los Angeles, CA on Tuesday night to face off against the East Los Angeles College Huskies in more conference action. Long Beach worked to an early lead in the early stages of the contest, but East L.A. was clutch down the stretch to hand the Vikings a 6-4 loss.

Long Beach scratched the first run on the board in the opening half inning of the game as sophomore first baseman Vincent Byrd II (Sacramento, CA) singled home sophomore shortstop Antonio Monroy (Maywood, CA) who led off the inning with a free pass.

The Huskies battled back to tie the contest up at 1-1 through the first full inning, but the Vikings continued to attack on the offensive front two frames later. Freshman third baseman Reese Berberet (Fallbrook, CA) connected for a one-out RBI-single to score Monroy once again, back by a two-run round-tripper from Byrd II to hand the Vikings a 4-1 lead.

However, two runs from East L.A. in the sixth and eighth innings was the demise of LBCC down the stretch leading to a 6-4 defeat.

Long Beach outhit the Huskies 8-7 with Byrd II leading the way by going 2-for-5 with a two-run homerun and a single. Freshman second baseman Tyler Wilber (Los Alamitos, CA) went a perfect 3-for-3 with a walk.

Freshman pitcher Jacob Alcorn (Lakewood, CA) earned the nod as the starter and only lasted 1.1 innings and walked four batters. Sophomore Cesar Gomez (Long Beach, CA) took over for four innings and recorded a pair of punch outs, but allowed three runs. Freshman reliever Chase Ambrose (Long Beach, CA) was tagged with the loss after tossing the final 2.2 frames. He fanned four batters.

The Vikings (9-7-1, 2-1 SCC) look for redemption on Thursday, March 9th as they will complete a two-game series with the Huskies on their home field. First pitch is set for 2 p.m.