The No. 13 Long Beach City College baseball team hosted the East Los Angeles College Huskies on Thursday evening in South Coast Conference (SCC) - South play under sunny conditions on Joe Hick Memorial Field. The Vikings featured a well-balanced attack that stemmed from the dominant pitching performance of freshman starter Josh Agnew (Long Beach, CA) en route to a 7-0 rout over the Huskies.
Agnew was nearly unhittable throughout his nine innings of work by halting the Huskies' offense to a mere two hits. He retired the Huskies in order seven times in the contest while fanning six batters. Agnew was effective early in the count by recording a plethora of first-pitch outs. His defense helped him out by flawlessly flashing the leather. Furthermore, the LBCC defense did not commit an error throughout the two-game series against East L.A.
The Viking offense took advantage of Agnew's dominance on the hill and struck first in the bottom of the second inning with freshman left fielder Collin Perez (Long Beach, CA) sending home freshman right fielder Val Stammler (Long Beach, CA) on a ground ball.
The bats remained hot for Long Beach in the bottom of the fourth inning with sophomore shortstop Antonio Monroy (Maywood, CA) lining a single up the middle to score Perez. Freshman second baseman Tyler Wilber (Los Alamitos, CA) followed with an RBI single down the right-field line, plating freshman center fielder Ian Konek (Long Beach, CA) to grab a 3-0 lead.
Long Beach extended their lead to 7-0 after etching a four-spot on the scoreboard the following inning with freshman backstop Zach Martinez (Lakewood, CA) kicking off the rally with an RBI-knock to right field, scoring sophomore first baseman Vincent Byrd II (Sacramento, CA). Perez followed with his second RBI-hit of the game, backed by Monroy's second RBI-base knock of the contest as well. Wilber capped off the inning with a base hit to right-center field thus leading to a 7-0 victory.
Agnew improves his record to 5-2 on the season and notched his first-career complete-game shutout. It is his second complete game of the season.
Stammler was perfect at the dish by going 3-for-3 with two runs scored and a walk. Monroy continued to hit consistently by going 4-for-5 with two RBI, while Perez notched a 2-for-4 day at the dish with two RBI and two runs scored.
The Vikings (10-7-1, 4-1 SCC) will continue conference action by taking on Rio Hondo on the road on Saturday, March 11th. First pitch is set for 12 p.m.