Mares, Pineda Help Warriors Even Series against Pasadena

TORRANCE, Calif. --- El Camino College evened up its South Coast Conference series against Pasadena with a 10-5 victory on Thursday afternoon at Warrior Field.

Dylan Mares went 2-for-4 with a pair of home runs and four RBIs while pitcher Adrian Pineda held the Lancers' offense in check for seven innings to draw ECC even in the crucial SCC series.

Overall, seven of the nine Warriors starters recorded a hit as the team pounded out 12 overall, seven of them for extra bases. Slater Nunez was 2-for-3 with a double and three RBIs while Ryan Matsukawa led the team with three hits on the day. Lucas Bonham was 1-for-5 with an RBI triple and extended his hitting streak to seven games.

Pineda was solid for the Warriors on the mound as he surrendered three runs, just one earned, on eight hits with two walks and four strikeouts to log his seventh win of the season.

Tyler Tellenbach and Will DeBlanc tossed the final two innings to seal the victory.

The Warriors opened the scoring in the first after Daniel Craig led off with a walk and then scored on Bonham's triple to left-center. Bonham would make it 2-0 when he came in to score on a sacrifice fly from Nunez and the Warriors led 2-0 after one.

In the fourth, Mares led off the inning with his first homer of the day, a massive shot over the center-field wall to make it 3-0. One inning later, Mares smacked his second home run of the game, a two-run shot to right to make it 6-0 for ECC.

The Lancers answered in the sixth with three but a four-run seventh for the Warriors put the game away.

The teams will meet again for the rubber match on Saturday at Jackie Robinson Park. First pitch is set for noon.