The No. 15 Long Beach City College baseball team was unstoppable on Thursday evening as they faced off against the San Diego City College Knights on Joe Hicks Memorial Field. The Vikings saw 11 different players record a hit, 10 players score at least one run, and seven players record one or more RBI in an 18-6 tromping over San Diego City.
The Viking bats were scorching hot after only scoring two runs in the past two games and, today, scored in every inning but two. Sophomore first baseman Vincent Byrd II (Sacramento, CA) got the offense flowing by launching a towering, two-run bomb that cleared the fence in dead-center to give the Vikings an early advantage.
In the following three frames, the Vikings amassed a total of 13 runs that featured four runs in the bottom of the second and third innings, capped off with a five-run bottom of the fourth inning.
Freshman shortstop Antonio Monroy (Maywood, CA) connected for the big hit in the bottom of the second inning, as he barreled an RBI double to score sophomore catcher Jacob Gotta (San Diego, CA) who reached on an infield single.
Long Beach plated all four of their runs in the bottom of the third inning with two outs. After freshman center fielder Ian Konek (Long Beach, CA) came around to score on a fielding error by the Knight's third baseman, sophomore designated hitter Jared Mayeda (Cypress, CA) squared up a two-RBI single through the left side, scoring Monroy and freshman left fielder Collin Perez (Long Beach, CA), respectfully. Byrd II capped off the inning with a liner to left-center, plating Freshman second baseman Tyler Wilber (Los Alamitos, CA) to give the Vikings a 10-2 lead.
LBCC piled on five more runs in the bottom of the fourth with Perez poking a single to left-center field, scoring freshman right fielder Val Stammler (Long Beach, CA). Monroy followed a batter later by lofting a sacrifice fly out to right field, bringing Konek across the plate. Freshman pinch hitter Humberto Castaneda (South Gate, CA) dug in with two outs and sent a pitch soaring over the left field wall for a three-run homerun to hand Long Beach a 15-2 lead.
Sophomore pinch hitter Andrew Jaekel (Lakewood, CA) earned an at-bat in the bottom of the sixth inning and made the most of it by sending a sacrifice fly out to left field, pushing across Gotta. The Vikings then added two more runs in the bottom of the eighth inning with freshman third baseman Reese Berberet (Fallbrook, CA) piecing an RBI triple into the left-center gap, scoring freshman first baseman Dominic Dixie (Mesa, AZ) after he reached base via walk. Berberet came around to score on a passed ball a batter later leading to an 18-6 victory.
The pitching staff performed well as freshman starter Josh Agnew (Long Beach, CA) earned the victory on the hill. He tossed five effective innings while fanning a pair of batters. The bullpen backed Agnew's solid efforts as sophomore Jacob Zinger (Long Beach, CA), freshman Jacob Alcorn (Lakewood, CA), sophomore Cesar Gomez (Long Beach, CA), and freshman Chase Ambrose (Long Beach, CA) sealed the deal in the final four frames.
The Vikings (5-3) will hit the road Saturday, February 17th for a doubleheader against the Grossmont College Griffiths. Game times are set for 12 noon and 2 p.m., pending weather.