The City College baseball team captured their fourth win in a row in their first conference game, beating Oxnard College 13-4 on Tuesday at Pershing Park.
The Vaqueros (8-3,1-0) bats stayed hot, as City College scored in double digits for the third game in a row.
“[It’s] the start of the conference; we call it season two,” City College head coach Jeff Walker said. “We hope we can continue to play together as a team and hope our team makes it to the postseason, which we have been fortunate enough to do the last few years.”
Freshman starting pitcher Decker Mac Neil gave the Vaqueros five strong innings, allowing four runs, eight hits, and four strikeouts.
Mac Neil caught himself in a tough spot during the first inning of the game, giving up two runs to Oxnard.
“I didn’t have my best stuff going at first. After that, I settled down and took it one pitch at a time and didn’t jump too far ahead and slowing the game down a little bit,” Mac Neil said.
Walker was pleased that Mac Neil did “a good job settling down.”
Designated hitter Carson Cahoy and first baseman Mark Hernandez were impactful for the Vaqueros. Cahoy went 2-for-3 with two hits, two runs, an RBI along with a walk. Additionally, Hernandez had two hits (a double and a single), an RBI and a walk.
The Vaqueros bounced back in the bottom of the second inning scoring three runs. Catcher Tyler Imbach and infielder Ricardo Amavizca both drew walks. It set up Matty Fung to lay down a sacrifice bunt, scoring Amavizca, giving the Vaqueros their first run. Freshman outfielder Carson Cahoy had a base hit that brought in Imbach to tie the game at two, then Hernandez hit a double to score Cahoy.
“I felt calm when I was in the batter’s box. There was a lot of wind; it was blowing left to right. It helped me go with my swing. I’m a big center and right-center guy, and it felt right with my swing,” Hernandez said.
In the third inning, Imbach drove in outfielder Pearce Blaney with a single to right field. Then in the fourth inning, with bases loaded, Caiden Matheny connected for a sacrifice fly, then a fielder’s choice brought in Gavin Haimovitz from third.
Going into the eighth inning with City College leading Oxnard 8-4, the Vaquero tacked on five more runs.
Blaney provided an RBI single to the right side of the field, scoring Haimovitz. Both Blaney and Matheny got on base by errors from Oxnard, and Imbach and Amavizca both stole home on wild pitches by the Oxnard pitcher.
“What kept me motivated was seeing my team perform that helped me stay in the game,” Mac Neil said.
Despite the cold and windy weather conditions, Mac Neil remained undisturbed on the mound collecting his second win of the season for the Vaqueros.
“Oxnard made six errors today. We don’t expect them to make as many errors two consecutive games in a row. We expect a tough game at their turf on Thursday,” Walker said.
City College’s next home game is against Oxnard on Saturday, Feb. 26 at 1 p.m.
