Long Beach Baseball Concludes Season in Sectional Play

The Long Beach City College baseball team competed in the California Community College Athletics Association (CCCAA) Sectional Round of playoffs this past weekend against the second-seeded Grossmont College Griffiths. Despite riding a hot streak that included a Super Regional round sweep over L.A. Mission the previous weekend, the Vikings dropped both contests to the Griffiths and capped off their season with a record of 30-16-1.

The Vikings reached the playoffs for the fourth-consecutive season after hauling in a South Coast Conference (SCC) – South Co-Conference Championship. Despite holding an impressive playoff streak in the program's history, Long Beach struggled to advance beyond the first round. This season the results took a turn for the better by advancing to the sectional round for the first time in program history since the inception of the new playoff structure in 2000.

Long Beach only plated a pair of runs in each contest against Grossmont. Freshman center fielder Val Stammler (Long Beach, CA) was responsible for an RBI in each game as he went 2-for-3 in the second game. Freshman starting pitcher Josh Agnew (Long Beach, CA) had an uncharacteristic start after recording his shortest outing of his career by lasting just 3.2 innings and allowing seven earned runs. However, he struck out a trio of Griffiths. He finished the season with an 11-4 record. Sophomore reliever Cesar Gomez (Long Beach, CA) and freshman reliever Angel Delgadillo (Norwalk, CA) combined to toss 2.1 innings of shutout baseball.

Sophomore first baseman Vincent Byrd II (Sacramento, CA) launched is 11th homerun on the season, ranking him T-10th in the state in round-trippers. He finished the year with an even 50 RBI that ranks him tied for ninth in the state.

Long Beach sees off 10 sophomores with a handful of them planning to attending four-year universities this upcoming year.