No. 7/14 Vikings Defeat Compton in Conference Action

The No. 7/14 Long Beach City College baseball team defeated the Compton College Tartars 9-3 in game one of the three-game South Coast Conference series. With the win, the Vikings improve to 25-13 and 16-4 in conference play.

Sophomore starting pitcher Garrett Rennie (7-2) earned the win on the mound with only allowing the Tartars to seven hits on two earned runs, while striking down nine. Rennie sits on top of the South Coast Conference- South leaderboard with 80 total strikeouts. Freshman pitcher Noel Soto earned his second save of the season by holding the Tartars to only three hits in three innings, while striking out six.

The Vikings were first on the board with a RBI single from sophomore short stop Travis Aversa to score in sophomore second baseman Raul Gonzalez. Gonzalez holds the second highest batting average in the conference with a .371.

Then sophomore left fielder Mark Stanford hit a sacrifice fly to score in Aversa. Freshman right fielder Zach Rivas scored off a fielder's choice to close out the first inning with the 3-0 lead.

The Tartars scored in the top of the second inning and then twice more in the top of the third to tie the game 3-3.

The Vikings came back in the bottom of the third with an RBI single from sophomore third baseman Chris Rubottom to score in Stanford, and then Rubottom and sophomore catcher Brett Wells scored after sophomore center fielder Andrew Schmitt hit a bomb to center field.

Stanford sealed the win for the Vikings with a three RBI double in the bottom of the fourth inning to score in sophomore designated hitter David Balboa, Rivas and Gonzalez. The Vikings finished the game with the 9-3 conference victory and will return to action on Thursday, Apr. 25 at Compton College in game two of the series at 2:30 p.m.