By Jimmy Friery
HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA – The Santa Barbara City College Baseball team won game 1 of their SoCal Super Regional on Thursday, an 18-1 blowout over #6 Santa Ana.
Both teams traveled south to the host, #3 Golden West, to kick off the three-team tournament. The Vaqueros made quite a first impression.
#10 SBCC once again gave the ball to ace Jake Villar, who came in with a record of 9-0, 2.19 ERA, and a streak of eight consecutive quality starts. In his postseason start last weekend against Mt. San Jacinto, he tossed a 5-hit complete game in the Vaqueros' 8-1 game 1 win—today's start was of equal quality. It helps to have a double-digit-run cushion, too.
After both teams went three-up, three-down in the 1st inning, Santa Ana retired the first Vaquero of the 2nd. From there, five straight batters reached base, capped off by Ethan Watson's RBI double to give the Vaqs a 4-0 lead. Out number two was recorded, before Patrick Walsh's single completed another streak of four straight reaching—it was 7-0 SBCC after just 2 innings.
Into the 6th, an error, single, and sacrifice bunt put two runners in scoring position for Daniel Ghiorso with 1 out. The WSC-North batting champion drilled a 3-run homer, his second of the year, to give SBCC a 10-spot. But wait, there's more!
Walsh got another RBI on a bases loaded fielder's choice, and Zach Torres' 2-out, 3-run triple was the cherry on top. The Vaqueros had scored 7 runs in both the 2nd and 6th innings. Meanwhile, Villar had only allowed 1 hit up to that point, and no one would deny that he could hold a 14-0 lead.
The Vaqueros tacked on a few more in the 7th, highlighted by Jordan Harris' second 2-RBI single of the day, increasing the lead to 17.
In the bottom of the 9th, Villar got pulled after 8.2 innings of just 2 hits, 3 walks, and 1 run on just 90 pitches. A statistical anomaly, the WSC-North strikeout leader (by a landslide, nonetheless) pitched this gem by getting only 1 strikeout! Koehn Thomas got the last out on a stress-free 2 pitches, so the Vaqueros have a fully rested bullpen going into a guaranteed two-game day tomorrow.
Presley Kosciusko, Sebastian Arguelles, and Jordan Harris each had 3-hit days, with Harris leading the team in RBIs (4). Daniel Ghiorso and Patrick Walsh also had multi-hit games with 2. Ethan Rodriguez had 3 walks for the third time in his last four games, which is the good reason why he was the only Vaqueros starter without an RBI.
Looking at how the double elimination bracket sets up, Santa Ana turned around and used a 6-run 7th to beat Golden West 14-3 in game 2 of the Super Regional. That leads to a Golden West-SBCC matchup on Friday at 11:00 AM.
Regardless of the result, the Vaqueros will play Santa Ana later in the day at 3:00 PM. Two wins means they win the Super Regional and advance to the SoCal Regional Finals. A split would result in a winner-take-all game on Saturday at noon.
Thanks to Villar's efficiency, SBCC's bullpen is set up perfectly to handle the weekend's remaining slate of games. Moreover, the offense just had 16 hits and 18 runs after scoring 8 and 13 last weekend. Look for the Vaqueros, winners of 14 of their last 15, to keep the momentum going into the huge day tomorrow.
