By Jimmy Friery
SANTA BARBARA, CA – The Santa Barbara City College Baseball team won a crucial matchup against conference-leading Hancock on Tuesday, 4-1.
Jake Villar was masterful, throwing his third quality start of the season (second consecutive) to lower his ERA to 3.09.
A pitchers' duel, neither team could advance a runner to third—let alone, score—through the first 2 and a half innings. That changed when Jordan Harris, Zach Torres, and Daniel Ghiorso all reached base to lead off the bottom of the 3rd with the heart of the order due up. Parker Hellekson grounded into a double play to subdue the rally, but SBCC plated a run on the play to take a 1-0 lead.
With the way Villar was pitching, the Vaqueros could take it easier on themselves for not having a big inning. The sophomore lefty would go on the face the minimum over the next 5 innings, allowing just one baserunner that he would promptly pick off at first.
SBCC did give themselves more of a cushion in later innings, though. In the 5th, after Harris and Torres singled once again, Hellekson redeemed himself in a big way by hitting a 2-out, 2-RBI double to make it 3-0 Vaqueros. He ended the day leading the team in batting average and second in slugging (behind Harris), slashing .357/.438/.500.
The Vaqueros tacked on another run in the 6th on Vince Gamberdella's triple, increasing the lead to 4-0.
After cruising through 8 scoreless, 4-hit, no-walk innings on less than 90 pitches, Villar could not quite go the distance. A homer, walk, and double brought the tying run to the plate with 1 out and runners on second and third. Head coach Jeff Walker called on Coleton Dahl to get the last 2 outs, and he did just that. Inducing a shallow flyout and then a groundout, Dahl earned the save and secured the Vaqueros 4-1 win.
Jake Villar's ace-like stuff brought his final line to a dominant 8.1 innings, 6 hits, 1 run, 1 walk, and 4 strikeouts.
Zach Torres and Jordan Harris were also crucial to the Vaqs win with 2 aforementioned hits apiece and 3 runs between the pair. Their production at the bottom of the order gave SBCC the edge offensively over Hancock on the day. Harris ended the day leading the team in slugging, slashing .314/.442/.514.
Vince Gamberdella and Patrick Walsh also had multi-hit days with 2 each, including Gamberdella's first (RBI) triple as a Vaquero.
SBCC (7-3) sits only behind Cuesta (9-3) and Hancock (10-3) in the WSC-North standings, who both have simply played more games. The Vaqueros are 2-1 head-to-head against Cuesta with one more matchup in mid-April.
The rest of this week could sneakily be huge for conference title hopes, as the Vaqueros travel north to Hancock for afternoon games on Thursday and Saturday.
