Baseball: Visico, Hale lead Long Beach to 8-2 win over East Los Angeles

Sophomore right fielder Phil Visico went 2 for 2 with 5 RBI while freshman right-handed pitcher Sean Hale (pictured) allowed two runs and two hits over seven innings to lead the Long Beach City College baseball team to an 8-2 South Coast Conference win over visiting East Los Angeles College on Tuesday at Joe Hicks Memorial Field.

The win improved the Vikings to 9-8 overall and evened their record in the SCC at 2-2 while the Huskies dropped to 8-8 and 1-3 in conference play. The two teams continue their three-game SCC series on Thursday (Mar. 14) at LBCC at 2:30 p.m.

After allowing a pair of runs to East Los Angeles in the first inning, Hale was nearly perfect over the next six innings. He retired 11 straight batters at one point and earned the win to improve to 4-0 overall this season.

Visico did the damage for the Vikings in the batter's box. Trailing 2-1 in the second, Visico laced a two-out, bases-clearing double down the right-field line to give LBCC a 4-1 lead. He added a two-run single in the sixth to put the Vikings ahead 8-2. Visico also walked twice and scored a run in just his fourth start of the season.

Sophomore Ray Patchen (2 for 4) and Daniel Pitts (1 for 4, 1 run) also had RBI for Long Beach.

Freshman Manuel Barragan closed out the win for the Vikings with two innings of scoreless relief.

For East Los Angeles, Sergio Luna earned the loss after allowing six runs and five hits over five innings. Joseph Tellez went 2 for 3 with a RBI to lead the Huskies' offense. 

Photo by Chris Ruiz