It was a dog fight at Joe Hicks Memorial Field on Thursday evening as the Long Beach City College baseball team played host to the Los Angeles Harbor College Seahawks in South Coast Conference (SCC) – South action. While vying for second place in the standings, Long Beach inched a game closer by overcoming a two-run deficit and earning a 3-2 victory in walk-off fashion.
Freshman hurler Josh Agnew (Long Beach, CA) climbed the hill for the ninth start of the season and continued to toss the pearl effectively by blanking the Seahawks in the opening four frames. Agnew was working well on the corners and mixing in his off-speed pitches effectively to keep L.A. Harbor off-balanced. Sophomore first baseman Vincent Byrd II (Sacramento, CA) displayed some solid defense with a diving play to his left to help maintain the scoreless tie. The play can be viewed here.
However, the Seahawks were able to plate two runs in the top of the fifth due to a Vikings' throwing error and a passed ball, thus handing Long Beach a 2-0 deficit after five full.
The Vikings chipped away at the small deficit in the bottom of the sixth inning as sophomore designated hitter Jared Mayeda (Cypress, CA) lined a single up the middle, scoring freshman second baseman Tyler Wilber (Los Alamitos, CA) who reached via fielder's choice to bring the score to 2-1.
The Seahawk threatened the following inning by finding themselves with runners on second and third with two outs. The threat was quickly nullified after freshman reliever Angel Delgadillo (Norwalk, CA) entered the contest and got out of the jam with a fly out to center field.
After making two quick outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Vikings used a two-out rally to tie the contest up. Sophomore shortstop Antonio Monroy (Maywood, CA) barreled a three-bagger to the right-center gap, setting up an RBI-situation for sophomore Chase Ambrose (Long Beach, CA) after he entered the game as a defensive replacement. Ambrose wasted no time by squaring up a first-pitch fastball and sending it up the middle to tie up the contest at 2-2.
Ambrose then took over the pitching duties and tossed two scoreless innings following his game-tying base knock. Long Beach fed off Ambrose's quality pitching by loading the bases in the bottom of the ninth and sending freshman third baseman Reese Berberet (Fallbrook, CA) to the plate. Berberet wore a pinch off the hip to earn the 3-2, walk-off victory on the fifth pitch of his at-bat. To view the at-bat, click here.
Ambrose earned his second win of the season while fanning a pair of batters and not allowing a hit. Agnew threw 5.2 solid innings while not allowing an earned run en route to four strikeouts.
Mayeda led the offense by going 3-for-4 with an RBI single.
The Vikings (12-10-1, 5-4 SCC) will travel to L.A. Harbor this Saturday, March 25th for a 12 p.m. contest.