Baseball: Ninth-inning collapse sinks Vikings, fall 8-3 to East Los Angeles

Long Beach City College dominated its South Coast Conference game against East Los Angeles College on Friday for eight innings. But LBCC couldn't finish off the contest as the Huskies rallied for seven runs in the top of the ninth to defeat the Vikings 8-3 at Joe Hicks Memorial Field.

The loss dropped the Vikings to 17-9 overall and 9-2 in the SCC. Long Beach has lost consecutive games for just the third time this season. The Vikings will look to avoid the three-game conference sweep, as well as the rain, when they close out the series at East Los Angeles on Saturday at 10 a.m.

Sophomore Evan May (Oxford Academy) was cruising on the mound for the Vikings through eight innings. Before the disastrous ninth, May had struck out eight and allowed just three hits. But East Los Angeles (11-15, 6-5 SCC) opened the frame with a double and consecutive singles to cut the Vikings' lead to 3-2. The Huskies moved the runners over with a sacrifice bunt before May hit the final batter he faced, Johnny Salgado, with a pitch to load up the bases.

Freshman Michael Hurtado (Warren HS) did his best to put out the fire as he came in to pitch for May, but LBCC first baseman Vincent Byrd II (Sacramento, CA/El Camino HS) couldn't handle a grounder by Mel Robles that allowed two runs to score. East LA added four more to put the game out of reach.

Byrd gave Long Beach a 2-1 lead in the first when he smacked a two-out, two-run double that scored sophomore Tai Tiedemann (Poly HS) and freshman Gavin Windes (St. John Bosco HS). Byrd scored LBCC's third run in the fifth when he came home on an East LA error.

Windes and Tiedemann both had a pair of hits to lead the Vikings. May took his first loss of the season to fall to 3-1. He allowed five runs (four earned) and six hits over 8 1/3 innings.