Baseball: Long Beach wins eighth straight, sweeps SCC series from Mt. SAC

Long Beach City College freshman Gavin Windes (St. John Bosco HS) drove in two runs while sophomore Tai Tiedemann (Poly HS) struck out nine in 6 1/3 innings to help lead the Vikings to a 4-2 win over visiting Mt. San Antonio College on Saturday at Joe Hicks Memorial Field.

LBCC swept its third straight South Coast Conference series to improve to 9-0 in conference play and 17-7 overall. The Vikings are one of the hottest teams in the state having won 11 of their last 12 games including eight straight.

Long Beach totaled 13 hits in the ball game but left 11 runners on base. But the Vikings were able to manufacture the runs needed to pull off the win.

The Vikings jumped on Mt. SAC (9-15, 2-7 SCC) starting pitcher Daniel Diaz early. With one out in the bottom of the first, LBCC got three straight singles to score. Freshman Tony Monroy got the rally started, followed by a base hit by Tiedemann. Windes then lined a single to center field to score Monroy and give the Vikings the early lead.

In the third, Tiedemann used his speed to get LBCC its second run. He beat out an infield single to second base, stole second, and promptly came in the score on Windes' second RBI single of the game.

Long Beach added single runs in the fifth and eighth innings. Sophomore Stevie Castro's (Wilson HS) ground out with the bases loaded forced in Windes and Tiedemann hit a sacrifice fly to drive in freshman Mickey Miladinovich (Wilson HS).

Mt. SAC scored late in the contest. They pulled off a double steal of second base and home in the seventh and rallied for a two-out run in the ninth.

Tiedemann scattered five hits and allowed one run to pick up the win and improve to 4-2. Freshman Michael Hurtado (Warren HS) closed out the victory, tossing the final 2 2/3 innings to earn his first save of the season.  

Windes went 3 for 5 while Monroy also had three hits and scored a run.

Long Beach returns to action on Tuesday (Apr. 5) at 6 p.m. when the Vikings begin another SCC series at East Los Angeles College.