By Jimmy Friery
SANTA BARBARA, CA – The Santa Barbara City College Baseball team (5-2) won at home on Tuesday, beating conference foe Ventura 10-4.
After 2 perfect innings from starting pitcher Jake Villar, the Vaqueros struck first in the bottom of the 2nd. A hit by pitch and 2 walks brought the bases loaded with 2 outs, when a wild pitch scored Patrick Walsh. The Vaqueros had scored a run without recording a hit.
After another clean inning from Villar, Presley Kosciusko's single brought home Ethan Rodriguez in the bottom of the 3rd to make it 2-0 SBCC.
Villar retired the first 11 batters he faced before 3 consecutive hits with 2 outs in the 4th tied the game at 2 apiece. Parker Hellekson made sure the tie was short lived, though—his first homer as a Vaquero led off the bottom half of the inning and gave SBCC the early lead once again. Daniel Ghiorso's single then plated Vince Gamberdella, making it 4-2 Vaqs.
Gamberdella inflicted his own damage in the 5th, doubling with the bases loaded to bring home 2 runs. In the 6th, Sebastian Arguelles perfectly executed a squeeze bunt, padding the Vaqueros' lead to 7-2.
In the bottom of the 7th, Zach Torres scored a run all on his own. He pinch hit and was promptly hit by a pitch, then stole both second and third. A passed ball brought him home for the ultimate trip around the bases.
Jake Villar's day ended with 7 innings pitched on an efficient 90 pitches. He scattered 5 hits and 2 walks for the 2 aforementioned earned runs in the 4th inning, punching out 5. The sophomore lefty earned the win, improving to 3-0, and has yet to allow a hit to a left-handed batter this season.
For another time, Koscisuko singled home Rodriguez in the 8th, and a Torres sacrifice fly scored Koscisuko to give the Vaqueros a 10-2 lead.
Ventura scored 2 runs in the top of the 9th with 2 outs, but Coleton Dahl got the last 6 outs to close out the Vaqs 10-4 win.
It was a balanced day for SBCC, who scored a run in every inning excluding the 1st. 8 different Vaqueros scored the 10 runs, with 6 different players recording RBIs.
Parker Hellekson homered, singled, and walked to bring his slash line to a scorching .391/.462/.543 (1.005 OPS).
Sebastian Arguelles doubled, singled, and squeeze bunted a run home. Presley Kosciusko had 2 hits, 2 RBIs, and a walk.
Vince Gamberdella doubled and walked, increasing his on-base percentage to an even .500. The sophomore catcher has more walks (8) than strikeouts (7) so far this season.
Ethan Rodriguez hit second, walking twice and stealing 2 bags. He has gotten on base more times than not—and is nearly 1-dotting—with a .316/.519/.474 slash line. Daniel Ghiorso, hitting leadoff Tuesday, has reached base in all 18 games to start the year. He singled, walked, and stole his 18th base of the year, leading the team in that category by 10. The quintessential leadoff hitter, Ghiorso has only struck out 5 times in 74 at bats, walking 11 times.
The Vaqueros currently sit second in the WSC-North with a 5-2 conference record, only behind 8-2 Hancock who has played more games. Tuesday's game is the first of a trio against Ventura this week—Thursday and Saturday, SBCC will head south down the coast to play at 2:00 and 1:00 PM, respectively, at Ventura.
