Baseball: Vikings fall short in comeback, fall 9-8 to Antelope Valley

The Long Beach City College baseball team nearly erased a 7-0, first-inning deficit, but ultimately dropped a 9-8 non-conference game to the visiting Antelope Valley College Marauders on Tuesday at Joe Hicks Memorial Field.

The Vikings committed five errors leading to seven unearned runs in an abysmal top of the first inning.

But LBCC began to slowly chip away at that lead. Sophomore Tanner Levine (Millikan HS) laced a RBI double in the bottom of the first that scored sophomore Michael Thomas (St. John Bosco HS) for the Vikings' first run.

AVC made it 9-1 in the top of the third inning with two more runs. But from that point, it was all Long Beach. Freshman Nick Varonos (Los Alamitos HS) shut down the Marauders, closing out the game with 6 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. He struck out seven and scattered four hits.

The Vikings' offense also came alive, getting three runs in the bottom of the third. Levine tallied his second RBI of the game with a single to drive in freshman Ernesto Sierra (Millikan HS), freshman Aaron Fawcett (Los Alamitos HS) brought home freshman Tai Tiedemann (Poly HS) with a RBI single, and an Antelope Valley error allowed Levine to score to cut the AVC lead to five.

Thomas hit a RBI single in the sixth before Long Beach rallied for three runs in the eighth. With one out, LBCC had the tying run at third base but couldn't bring in freshman Jonathan Conroy (Millikan HS).

Long Beach once again threatened in the bottom of the ninth. The Vikings had the bases loaded with two outs, but Thomas flew out to right field to end the contest.

The Vikings totaled 14 hits in the contest, but left 11 runners on base. Levine went 2 for 5 with 2 RBI to lead Long Beach at the plate.

Sophomore Zach Mahon (Oak Ridge HS) took the loss for the Vikings. He recorded just one out in the top of the first before being replaced by freshman Sam Roberts (Lakewood HS). Roberts allowed two runs and five hits over 2 1/3 innings.

Long Beach (13-13) and Antelope Valley (8-16) close out the two-game non-conference series at AVC in Lancaster on Thursday at 2 p.m.