SBCC spotted Cerro Coso a 5-2 lead after three innings on Wednesday, then dominated the last six frames to rally for a 12-5 baseball win at Pershing Park.
Sophomore shortstop Wesley Ghan-Gibson went wild at the plate for the second straight game. He was 5-for-5 with two RBIs and four runs. He reached base in all five plate appearances and has reached base 10 straight times in the last two games.
Ghan-Gibson is a perfect 8-8 in the Vaqueros' last two outings, turning his .167 batting average into a team-leading .375.
The Vaqueros (6-7) outscored the Coyotes 10-0 in the last six innings. They tied their season high in runs and rapped out a season-best 18 hits. Cleanup hitter John Jensen went 3-5 with a double for SBCC, which has won two straight and five of its last seven.
It was sweet revenge for SBCC, which had suffered a 12-10 walk-off loss at Cerro Coso in Ridgecrest on Feb. 12 when the Coyotes hit two homers and scored five times in the bottom of the ninth.
Ghan-Gibson had four singles and a double on Wednesday.
"Shane (Hersh) and Shotz (Andrew Schatz) scored me on most of those, so give them the credit," said Ghan-Gibson, a former quarterback and baseball player at San Marcos High. "We came out aggressive and it was awesome. We owed this team something."
Schatz, a catcher hitting in the 9 spot, was 3-3 with two doubles and three RBIs. Hersh, a freshman second baseman from Nordhoff High who made his second start on Wednesday, was 2-3 with two RBIs and two runs.
The bottom three hitters in the lineup (Ghan-Gibson, Hersh and Schatz) went 10-13 with seven runs and seven RBIs.
Cerro Coso (7-6) entered the game as the state leader in batting average (.375), slugging percentage (.541) and triples (11).
The Vaqueros got within a run at 5-4 on an RBI single by Andrew Schatz in the fourth. They put up five runs on three hits in the next inning. Ghan-Gibson drove in the tying run with a single to left and Hersh followed with another RBI single that scored Jake Holton and made it 6-5.
Elliott Reece started on the mound for the Vaqueros and gave up five runs on 11 hits in 4.1 innings. Jonathan Keller (1-0) got his first college win, pitching no-hit ball for 1.2 innings. Jake Keily came on to start the seventh and tossed two innings with three strikeouts and no hits.
The Vaqueros retired 13 straight Coyote batters from the fourth through the eighth. Brandon Luper pitched the ninth, giving up a single to Brycin Hernandez.
"They drove 3½ hours and came ready to hit (they had 10 of their 12 hits in the first three innings)," said SBCC coach Jeff Walker. "Offensively, things really changed after the third. We had a rocky start, then Keller did a good job and Keily shut them down for the second time.
"It was good to see our bats come alive but we still had a lot of mistakes on the bases. A lot of detail things that got away from us. But the baseball gods were on our side and we touched home plate more than they did.
"This is a good way to start the week. It's a little disappointing to see our starter give up five runs in 4 1/3 innings. We'll need more than that in conference play. But the bullpen picked us up big time."
The Vaqueros are playing four games in four days. They travel to Fullerton (10-5) on Thursday at 2 p.m., then host Reedley in a two-game set on Friday (2:30 p.m.) and Saturday (1 p.m.).