A two-out, ninth-inning error by the Vikings led to five runs as the Long Beach City College baseball team suffered a 7-4 South Coast Conference loss to visiting rival Cerritos College on Saturday at Joe Hicks Memorial Field.
Cerritos (10-9, 3-3 SCC) took the conference series, winning two of three games. With the loss, Long Beach dropped to 6-11 overall and 3-3 in conference play.
Sophomore Sean Hale (Marina HS) turned in his best outing on the mound of the season as he allowed just one run and six hits over six innings. He struck out two and walked two.
Hale left the game with the Vikings holding a narrow 2-1 lead but ended up with a no decision after the Falcons rallied to tie the game in the seventh.
In the ninth, after a one-out single by the Falcons' Kyle Carpenter and intentional walk to Hayden Stevens, LBCC reliever Michael Ostrea (Kennedy HS) appeared to have pitched his way out the jam. With two outs, he induced a grounder to second base by Joseph Aguirre, but Pernell Roberts Jr. (Westchester HS) couldn't handle the ball to extend the inning. One batter later, pinch hitter Shane Preston laced a double down the left-field line to score a pair.
Cerritos went on to add three more runs in the ninth to blow the game open.
Long Beach rallied two runs in the bottom of the ninth thanks to a pinch-hit, two-run single by sophomore Manny De La Rosa (St. John Bosco HS). But the Vikings couldn't complete the comeback.
Freshman Michael Thomas (St. John Bosco HS) and sophomore Ryan Dickison (Pacifica HS) both had a pair of hits for the Vikings. Sophomore Nolan Flashman (University HS) hit a triple in the first inning to drive in Dickison for the Vikings' first run and sophomore Stefan Miladinovich (Wilson HS) hit a sacrifice fly to score Dickison once again in the fourth.
Ostrea took the loss for LBCC despite allowing four unearned runs over 2 1/3 innings.
Daniel Lopez went 3 for 5 to lead Cerritos at the plate while Jared Robinson earned the win for the Falcons, pitching 8 2/3 innings and allowing four runs and eight hits. Joe Fernandez got the final out of the game to pick up the save.