Baseball: Long Beach cruises to 7-0 SCC win over Cerritos

Freshman starting pitcher Nick Wood (pictured) allowed just two hits over seven innings and the Long Beach City College offense banged out 11 hits on its way to a 7-0 South Coast Conference win over visiting Cerritos College on Thursday at LBCC's Joe Hicks Memorial Field.

The Vikings will go for the three-game sweep on Saturday (Mar. 23) at 12 p.m. when the two teams play the series finale back at Cerritos.

Thursday's win improved Long Beach to 11-10 overall and evened the Vikings' SCC record at 4-4. Cerritos dropped to 8-12 and 3-5 in conference play.

Wood was nearly untouchable by the Falcons. But he had to get out of a one-out, bases loaded jam in the top of the first inning. He induced a double play out of Cerritos' Myles Mendez to escape the frame with no damage.

After allowing a first-inning single, he held the Falcons hitless all the way until giving up a two-out single in the seventh to Edgar Menendez.

Wood struck out five and walked four to earn the win and improve to 3-5 overall.

The LBCC bats also did its part by scoring at least one run in every inning except the first and fourth innings.

Freshman Daniel Pitts (1 for 3) drove in a pair of runs with a RBI single and sacrifice fly. Sophomore Ray Patchen (2 for 4) hit a RBI double and the Vikings also got RBI from sophomores Phil Visico (1 for 2, 2 walks, 2 runs) and Jaime Valle (1 for 4, 1 run, 1 walk).

Daniel Algra (0-3) took the loss for Cerritos. He allowed three runs and eight hits over 4 2/3 innings.  

Photo by Chris Ruiz