Warriors Rally To Take Series from Long Beach

Warriors Rally To Take Series from Long Beach

TORRANCE, Calif. - El Camino College was behind 3-2 in the third inning but rallied back to score six unanswered runs to take the game, 8-3, and the series, 2-1 against Long Beach City College at home on Saturday afternoon.

The Warriors (25-5, 13-4 SCC) were ahead 2-0 early in the game but the Vikings (19-12, 12-4) took a 3-2 lead in the third inning.  The Warriors regained the lead in the fifth inning and held onto an 5-run lead to finish the game.

Aaron Orozco picked up his eighth win of the season despite only throwing five innings.  He allowed three runs on five hits, four walks, and struck out eight batters. Julian Diaz tossed two innings of scoreless baseball allowing just two hits and one walk.  Spencer Long closed out the final two innings and faced the minimum six batters.

Three Warriors had multi-hit games for the day.  Logan Young, Joseph Borges, and Matt Beserra were all 2-for-4.  Spencer Long hit his second home run of the season after hitting a solo blast over the RF fence in the seventh inning.

The Warriors took a 1-0 lead in the first inning.  The Vikings starter wasn't in control of his pitches to start the inning off and loaded the bases with the first three batters. The Warriors only scored one run after Long hit into a double play with the bases loaded and no outs.

The Warriors made it 2-0 in the second after Aaron Orozco led the inning off with a base hit.  Taishi Nakawake scored Orozco after the Vikings third basemen let a ground ball go through his legs for an error.  

The Vikings took a 3-2 lead in the third inning.  Despite walking and picking off the first batter of the inning.  The next two Vikings singled and walked before Travis Aversa doubled to center field to score both runners.  Zach Rivas and David Balboa both singled to right field to bring in another run to give the Vikings a 3-2 lead.

The Vikings had a great opportunity to add another run in the fourth inning.  Brett Wells led the inning off with a double down the left field line and advanced to third on a wild pitch.  Aaron Orozco battled back and came up huge by striking out the side to escape the inning despite the Vikings having runners on first and second to start the inning.  

The Warriors got two runs back in the fifth inning to retake the lead over the Vikings.  Spencer Palmer, Joseph Borges, and Long loaded the bases with one out. Palmer scored on a wild pitch to tie the game at 3-3 and Ty Conrad hit a sacrifice fly to bring in Borges and make it a 4-3 game.

The Warriors added two more runs in the sixth inning.  Matt Beserra led the inning off with a double down the RF line and Jimmy Galicia hit a duck snart single to left field to put the first two batters on base.  Logan Young hit into a RBI groundout to bring in one run and Galicia scored on a wild pitch to make it a 6-3 game for the Warriors.

Spencer Long led the 7th inning off with a solo homerun over the right field fence to make it 7-3.  The Warriors made it an 8-3 game in the eighth inning after Joseph Borges singled in Jerry Granillo from second base.  

The Warriors now sit ahead of the Vikings by a half game in the South Coast Conference South.  The Warriors have now won sixth conference series in a row after dropping the first conference series to Mt. Sac.  They have a two-game set with Chaffey College next. They are at Chaffey College on Tuesday, April 9th. First pitch is scheduled for 2:30 PM.