The Long Beach City College baseball team played a much different game than yesterday's 18-3 loss but unfortunately the outcome was the same. Sophomore starting pitcher Julian Griego (Poly HS) did his best to keep the Vikings in the game, but LBCC suffered a 3-2 defeat to visiting Orange Coast College in Game 2 of the Southern California Regional playoffs.
The Pirates took the series 2-0 to end the Vikings' 2015 season with a 20-18 overall record.
Saturday's game was the exact opposite of the slugfest Orange Coast put on in Friday's contest. Griego held OCC to just eight hits as the Pirates used small ball to rally for the win late.
Orange Coast, the designated home team in today's game, took an early 1-0 lead in the second. Jack Kruger and Stephen Corona opened the inning with consecutive singles. After James McLellan advanced the pair with a sacrifice bunt, Stefan Panayiotou lifted a sacrifice fly to left field to bring home Kruger.
Long Beach jumped ahead with a rally in the top of the fourth. After singles by sophomore Tanner Levine (Millikan HS) and freshman Aaron Fawcett (Los Alamitos HS) as well as a walk to freshman Jackson Foss (Wilson HS), the Vikings had the bases loaded with just one out. Corona struck out sophomore Justin Davis (Mayfair HS) for the second out of the frame, but sophomore Robert Castaneda (Poly HS) delivered the clutch hit LBCC had been looking for. He blooped a double just inside the right-field line to score Foss and Levine.
OCC came back to tie up the game in the seventh. Corona led off with a single and pinch runner Robert Longtree moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by McLellan. Panayiotou followed with a single to put runners on the corners before Nick Grimes put down the suicide squeeze bunt to score Longtree.
And Orange Coast regained the lead in the bottom of the eighth inning. Jeff Nellis led off with a single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Chaneng Varela. Griego struck Tommy Bell, but with two outs Kruger singled to center to drive in Nellis with the go-ahead run.
Long Beach got a one-out infield single by freshman Zach Wainright (St. John Bosco HS) in the ninth, but OCC reliever Scott Serigstad struck out the final two Viking batters to close out the game and series win.
LBCC couldn't take advantage of its chances on offense, leaving seven runners on base. In his final game as a Viking, Levine went 2 for 4 with a run lead LBCC at the plate.
Also in his final game for LBCC, Griego took the loss to close and outstanding season and career with an 8-3 overall record. He allowed three runs and eight hits in his seventh complete game of the season.
Serigstad (5-3) earned the win for Orange Coast (23-15), tossing five scoreless innings. He allowed just two hits and struck out six.
Despite the outcome, it was a great season for the Vikings. LBCC won its second consecutive South Coast Conference championship and reached the postseason for the fourth time over the past eight years. Also, head coach Casey Crook won his 500th career game. With 509 wins, Crook is just four victories away from surpassing Long Beach coaching legend Joe Hicks (513) as the college's all-time leader.