After being three runs down early in the game, the City College baseball team came back to defeat East Los Angeles College 5-4 in extra innings Saturday afternoon at Pershing Park.
This is The Vaquero’s first game back at home after four road games. City College is now undefeated at home and just won their second game against East Los Angeles this year. They won 5-1 on their first face-off on February 21.
With one out in the tenth inning and the game tied at four, a wild pitch by an East Los Angeles pitcher brought home the winning run to end City College’s two game losing streak. The Vaqueros were trailing 4-1 early after four consecutive runs were scored by East Los Angeles.
“We were very confident,” Jake Holton (no.29) said. “We knew we were better than those guys.”
Spencer Lipkin (no.39) scored the winning run after he came into the game during the tenth inning as a pinch-runner.
The Vaqueros took an early 1-0 after a single by catcher Andrew Schatz (no.28) scored Wesley Ghan-Gibson (no.7). Both players had solid performances on both offense and defense.
Ghan-Gibson had three hits with one home run, a double and two runs batted in. His home run tied the game in the bottom of the eighth inning. It was Ghan-Gibson’s first run of the season.
“I just saw it and I hit it,” said Ghan-Gibson referring to the game-tying home run he blasted into left field to lead off the eighth inning.
The relief pitching of The Vaqueros was key to the win tonight as they held East Los Angeles to no runs in the last five innings. Jake Keily (no.32), Matthew Young (no.37) and Steven Elliott (no.24) all came on the field and took care of business. Elliott will be credited with the win, his second on the season.
Starting pitcher Kyle Basch (no.40) pitched well even though he had a few rough innings. He retired the last four batters he faced before handing the ball to relief pitcher Keily in the sixth inning.
City College had their chances early in the game but they failed to capitalize.
“I’d like for us to be more consistent with runners in scoring position,” City College coach Jeff Walker said.
“It’s good to be back home after some road games,” coach Walker said.
The Vaqueros avoided losing their third game in a row and that is key in this upcoming week.
“A win like this get us rolling and it gives us momentum,” Ghan-Gibson said.
They have four games in a row to kick off the month of March.
The next CIty College game will be against Cerro Coso college at 3 p.m. Wednesday, March 5, at Pershing Park. The Vaqueros lost to Cerro Coso 12-10 earlier in February.
