Baseball: LBCC wraps up sweep of Compton to move to 6-0 in South Coast Conference

Sophomore Tai Tiedemann (Poly HS) tossed seven scoreless innings and helped his own cause by hitting a two-run triple to help lead Long Beach City College to a 6-1 South Coast Conference win over visiting El Camino College Compton Center on Saturday.

The Vikings swept the three-game SCC series from the Tartars for their fifth straight win and are now 14-7 overall and 6-0 in conference play.

Tiedemann was dominant in his start as he scattered five hits over seven innings. He was cruising until running into trouble in the top of the sixth. A leadoff error and a single followed by a sacrifice bunt put runners on second and third with one out. LBCC catcher Stevie Castro (Wilson HS) cut down the rally momentarily by picking off Compton's Arron Kirchner at third base. But a walk and a passed ball put runners back on second and third before Tiedemann got Ivan Navarro to ground out and end the threat.

Tiedemann also did it with the bat in the win. Freshman Tristin Chamberlain (Millikan HS) doubled before freshman Tony Monroy (Warren HS) singled to open the bottom of the first. Tiedemann followed with an impressive shot to the right-center field gap for a stand-up triple and 2 RBI. He came in to score on a sacrifice fly by freshman Gavin Windes (St. John Bosco HS) and Long Beach held and early 3-0 lead.

LBCC added a run in the fifth thanks to clutch two-out hitting. Freshman Vincent Byrd II (Sacramento, CA/El Camino HS) doubled down the right-field line and came in to score on a double to the left-center field gap by Castro to extend the Vikings' lead to 4-0.

The Vikings put together another two-out rally to score two final runs in the seventh. Sophomore Sean Williams (Wilson HS) singled up the middle to drive in Byrd and sophomore Pernell Roberts Jr. (Westechester HS) followed with a RBI single to score Castro.

Compton (2-18, 1-5 SCC) scored a run in the ninth and loaded the bases, but freshman Michael Hurtado (Warren HS) struck out Kirchner looking to end the game.

Chamberlain, Tiedemann, Byrd, and Roberts all had two hits to lead LBCC at the plate. Tiedemann picked up the win to improve to 3-2.

Long Beach will have next week off before returning to action on Mar. 29 at 2:30 p.m. when the Vikings open a three-game SCC series at home against Mt. San Antonio College.