SANTA BARBARA - Hosting East Los Angeles on Saturday, the SBCC baseball team held a 3-2 lead heading into the top of the fifth, but gave up 12 runs the rest of the way in a 14-5 defeat.
The Vaqueros' (4-3) day started with fireworks on the offensive side of things, with right fielder Caiden Matheny sending a two-run homer over the left field wall in the second and third baseman Gavin Haimovitz solo homering to left in the fourth. On both occasions, SBCC took a one-run lead.
However, momentum would swing the Huskies' (3-5) way in the top of the fifth, when they got eight runners on base in total and scored six times.
SBCC trailed 9-3 heading into the bottom of the seventh. The Vaqueros got out to a promising start to their half of the inning, as Justin Deal hit a single up the middle and Owen Crevelt doubled to left center. Max Porter hit a sacrifice fly into deep center field to bring Deal home, and a Gabe Baldavino double to left center scored a run from Crevelt to make it 9-5.
Unfortunately for the Vaqueros, that was the last time they would scratch, and East LA put the icing on the cake with five more runs over the final two innings.
Haimovitz led his team with two hits and two runs on three at bats. In all, SBCC had nine hits, compared to 12 for the Huskies.
Santa Barbara leaned on eight different pitchers, ending the day with 12 strikeouts, just one shy of a season-high. Right hander Jake McBride set a personal-best with six.
On Tuesday, SBCC returns to Pershing Park to host West LA at 2:00 p.m.
