Santa Barbara, Ca. The SBCC Baseball season has witnessed its series of challenges throughout the year, and now their fate remains in their own hands in a best-of-3 post-season series. After a slow start against Golden West College doomed them in game one losing 7-6, the Vaqueros must win both games of a potential doubleheader Saturday to advance to the next round of the CCCAA baseball championship. Adding to its season-long theme of adversity, Friday's game time was pushed back an hour to help mend the field after a heavy rain hit the Santa Barbara area Thursday night/Friday morning. "It's nothing we haven't faced this year with the crazy weather," said Head Coach Jeff Walker. "But kudos to the players and coaches for working hard before the game to get everything playable."
The work the Vaqs put into the field didn't translate into early hitting as SBCC was blanked by stellar pitching from Rustler's starter JD Rodriguez who held Santa Barbara scoreless for the first 4 innings. The Vaqs finally got on the board in the bottom of the fifth with a solo homerun by sophomore Carson Cahoy (2). "I thought Rodriguez was really good today with his speed and mixing of pitches. He was able to keep us guessing, which hurt our hitting," said Walker. Rodriguez ended up going 7 innings, giving up 2 earned runs, with 7 strikeouts against only 2 walks. While he was able to keep the Vaqueros at bay at the plate, the Rustlers came out swinging early. A series of singles in the first gave Golden West and early 1-0, and then a 2-run double in the second, coupled with a wild pitch gave them an early 4-0 advantage. The Rustlers added another 2 runs in the 3rd, staking them to a 6-0 lead, and they rounded out their scoring with 1 run in the 7th . Many teams might find a 5-run deficit in the 7th to be insurmountable, but not the 2023 Vaqueros.
After Cahoy's bomb in the 5th, the Vaqs added another run in the 7th after a HBP and steal by Freshman Zach Torres, and a follow up RBI single by sophomore Daniel Hirose making the score 7-2, and within reach. "That was a great RBI by Daniel, because we know with our team, there is no quit as you could see as the game progressed," added Walker. And progress it did as SBCC was able to nearly tie the score in an exciting 8th with classic Vaquero "small ball." A single by sophomore Matty Fung, and a subsequent HBP and walk had the bases juiced for sophomore Patrick Walsh who was then also HBP bringing in a run (7-3). After a strikeout, freshman Ethan Watson ripped a two-run single, and Torres rounded out the scoring with an RBI single making the score 7-6. Unfortunately, that was the extent of the Vaqueros runs for the game as a groundout to short stop ended the inning, followed by a 1-2-3 bottom of the 9th. "Our guys once again showed their mettle, and never-quit attitude," said Walker. "Even though we are facing a pretty big hole tomorrow, I guarantee these guys will come out swinging."
After the 7-6 loss, SBCC and Golden West face off again on Saturday in a potential double-header. Should the Rustlers win game 2 in the series, they will advance to the Super Regional at Santa Ana College next weekend. Should SBCC win game 2, they will follow up with a decisive game 3 one hour after the conclusion of game 2. All games will be played at Pershing Park, with first pitch of Game 2 at 11 am.
