By Jimmy Friery
SANTA BARBARA, CA – The Santa Barbara City College Baseball team took over the top spot in the WSC-North standings on Tuesday, walking off Cuesta 8-7.
The Vaqueros came into the game a half-game back of Cuesta, but flipped their status by its conclusion. The win snapped Cuesta's 16-game win streak, their previous loss coming over a month prior.
For the Vaqueros, after consecutive sweeps of Pierce and Moorpark, ace Jake Villar was trusted with the start in the biggest game of the season to-date. He would induce a groundout and 2 strikeouts in the top of the 1st.
For the seventh time in the last 8 games, Vaqueros leadoff hitter Daniel Ghiorso reached base in the first SBCC at bat of the game. Ethan Rodriguez followed with a walk and Presley Kosciusko sacrifice bunted them to second and third with 1 out. A passed ball and Sebastian Arguelles RBI groundout gave the Vaqs an early 2-0 lead.
Cuesta answered by sneaking across an unearned run and a fielder's choice RBI in consecutive innings, and the score was tied at 2 midway through the 3rd.
Rodriguez and Kosciusko led off the bottom half of the frame with a single and double, respectively, and Arguelles' second RBI groundout gave the Vaqueros the lead back. Kosciusko was stranded at third, though, but it was a 3-2 SBCC lead nonetheless.
After a Cuesta double, single, and single scored a run in the 5th, Villar stranded the bases loaded with a strikeout to end the inning tied at 3.
Once again, the Vaqueros answered right away in the bottom half of the inning. Patrick Walsh earned a 2-out walk with Rodriguez on second, and Vince Gamberdella's clutch single gave SBCC the lead back, again. Jordan Harris tacked on another with a single as the Vaqueros lineup passed the baton to a 5-3 advantage.
In the 6th, Ghiorso and Rodriguez each reached base and stole second, resulting in a promising second and third situation with nobody out. The Vaqs would only plate Ghiorso, however, on Arguelles' 3rd RBI of the day, this time a single to right field.
Pitching 6 innings of 3 runs, 2 earned runs, and 6 strikeouts, Villar handed the ball to the bullpen to secure the win, leading 6-3. It would be his sixth consecutive quality start, in line for his conference-leading 8th win.
Koehn Thomas came on, throwing a clean top of the 7th. With a chance to blow the game open, SBCC stranded the bases loaded in the bottom of the inning.
Leading off the top of the 8th, back-to-back walks forced head coach Jeff Walker to bring in Jordan Rico. He walked the first batter he faced, and it was bases loaded nobody out for Cuesta, the tying run now on first.
Then, the Vaqueros caught a massive break. A line drive was hit right to Arguelles' shoelaces at shortstop, forcing him to fall forward a tad. You'll have to ask him if he dropped the ball on purpose, shades of the Bill Russell-Reggie Jackson play in the Dodgers-Yankees 1978 World Series. Regardless, he quickly picked it up, tossed to Ghiorso covering second base, who threw to Harris at third to tag the runner for a double play. The Vaqueros gladly traded 2 outs for a run, and Rico struck out the next batter to keep the lead at 6-4.
In the bottom of the 8th, Gamberdella came through again with an RBI double, giving SBCC a 3-run, 7-4 lead with 3 outs from a win.
Halen Jaden Guerrero was tasked with the save opportunity. A double, single, and walk later, and the bases were loaded with nobody out. A 2-RBI single and a wild pitch followed, and suddenly it was 7-6 with runners on second and third, still with nobody out. Cuesta tied the game on an RBI groundout, and Guerrero struck out the next batter for the second out. An intentional walk and a walk loaded the bases again, but Guerrero prevented further damage by inducing a flyout.
The silver lining was that the 9, 1, and 2 hitters were due up for SBCC with the chance at a walk-off win. After Ethan Watson popped out, Ghiorso hustled out an infield single. With the state leader in stolen bases now on first, Rodriguez made sure he did not have to; he singled on the first pitch through the right side, bringing Ghiorso to third. With the winning run 90 feet away, Kosciusko stepped in, and similarly drilled the first pitch he saw into right field. Ghiorso trotted home easily—the winning run.
In seconds, the entire first-place Vaqueros team was mobbing Kosciusko at first base. With 5 games to play, SBCC controls their own destiny, hoping to hold on to their slim conference lead.
Diving deeper, 3 teams are fighting for the WSC-North title. SBCC (15-4) sits a half-game ahead of Cuesta (14-4), who will finish a suspended 6-6, top of the 13th game against Ventura on Thursday. Regardless of the result in that one, the Vaqueros have secured the head-to-head tiebreaker, winning 3 of the 4 matchups. That leaves third-place Hancock (14-5) still just 1 game back of SBCC, with a massive Tuesday, April 23 matchup at Pershing looming. The Vaqueros beat Hancock twice in 3 games earlier in the season.
