Ian Clark’s dominant performance on the mound lifted City College to a 2-0 win over the Oxnard Condors to extend its winning streak to four games Thursday afternoon at Pershing Park.
It was the sophomore’s first career complete-game shutout after he allowed just four hits and one walk.
“It’s all about what you make of your adversity,” Clark said. “I had a good day today throwing strikes and not worrying about the wrong things and keeping my head clear.”
Clark started the game by pegging Oxnard’s Adam Maciel with the very first pitch of the game, putting him on first base. After a sacrifice bunt and a passed ball, Maciel reached third.
“The first thing is always the toughest for pitchers,” said head coach Jeff Walker.
But that’s when Clark settled down and got into his groove as he retired the next two batters to get out of the first-inning jam.
“That first pitch doesn’t really matter to me,” Clark said.
After that first inning, Clark was in complete control throughout, as he went on to retire 14 of the next 16 batters.
The Vaqueros found their run support by taking advantage of timely errors. The first came in the second inning, as Andrew Cosgrove led off by reaching base on an error by the Condor shortstop.
After a single, City College had runners on the corners with no outs as Wesley Ghan-Gibson came to the plate. That’s when City College caught the Condors off guard and Ghan-Gibson laid down a bunt to execute the squeeze play and score Cosgrove.
The second Vaqueros run came in the very next inning thanks to a second Oxnard error. Third baseman Chris Smutny led off with a double, then reached third two batters later. When Oxnard catcher Logan Gillaspie saw Smutny take a large lead at third base, he attempted to pick him off but the ball sailed over the third baseman’s, allowing Smutny to extend the lead to 2-0.
The Condors would threaten to score in the ninth, but Clark escaped again and capped off the shutout win with his lone strikeout.
“Outstanding job, I felt like he got stronger as the game went on,” Walker said.
“I didn’t strike a guy out until that last batter so my defense was nails today, I love it,” Clark said.
The Vaqueros struggled late in March, losing four straight, but they followed that with a four-game win streak to surge into first place in the Western State Conference North Division.
The 11-5 conference record for the Vaqueros puts them just one game ahead of Cuesta going into their matchup, so the series will have major implications on playoff seeding.
The big two-game series with Cuesta begins at 1 p.m. Saturday April 9 at Pershing Park. The second game will be at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 12 at Cuesta.
