Behind strong pitching and solid defense, the baseball team won its fourth consecutive game over the Long Beach City Vikings, 6-2 Tuesday.
With the victory, the Warriors improved their record to 11-2, 4-2, while the Vikings dropped to 5-13, 0-6.
The Warriors will look to keep piling up their victories against Compton College today at 2 p.m. and Saturday against L.A. City College at noon. Both games will be played at Warrior Field.
“We can’t take anybody lightly,” sophomore Andy Magana said. “We just have to go out there and keep wining our games.”
In Tuesday’s game, the Warriors started off slowly but still managed to jump out to an early lead. They would not relinquish that lead.
“We’ve been playing flat,” coach Greg Bergeron said. “I’m a little disappointed with our lack of intensity in the last couple of games.”
Despite getting 10 hits in the game, the Warriors, ineffective in their ability to produce runs, had to rely on fundamentals.
“Our offense is striking out way too much, also leaving too many guys on base,” Bergeron said. “It simply wasn’t one of our better games.”
Those fundamentals were put to use in the bottom of the seventh inning, scoring two runs on back-to-back squeezes plays.
“We squeezed in three runs,” Bergeron said. “Our offense could not get the big hit, so we manufactured runs.”
On the bright side, the Warriors got a solid pitching performance from freshman Craig Ganser. Ganser, normally a reliever, started his first game, going six innings and allowing two earned runs.
“I felt good the first four innings, and after that my velocity started dropping,” Ganser said.
In the top of the sixth, the Vikings threatened with no outs and the bases loaded, but could only score one run on a sacrifice fly. Ganser then dug deep and struck out the next batter. The following batter grounded out to third base, ending the inning.
“I tried not to lose focus with the bases loaded,” Ganser said. “I’m a relief pitcher, so I know how to get out of certain situations.”
That particular inning gave the offense a little momentum as they scored three times in the bottom of the seventh inning.
“We’ve been jumping on teams in the middle to late innings,” sophomore, Bart Babineaux said. “So instead of turning it up late, we need to start bringing it early.”
Babineaux, broke out of a slump going two for three at the plate; he also scored three runs and stole a couple of bases.
“So far, I’ve been struggling all year,” Babineaux said. “I’m just trying to break out, but we are winning; that’s the most important thing.”
Last Saturday, with aggressive base running and clutch hitting, the Warriors came back from behind to defeat Cerritos College Falcons, 5-4.
“We were in a kind of funk for while,” assistant coach
Tom Bergeron said. “But I knew we could beat this team if we kept it close.”
The bullpen performed exceptional, allowing only one unearned run in five innings of work. to hold off the Falcons.
“We hung around and our bullpen gave us a chance,” Bergeron said. “We battled back and got a couple of hits when we needed it the most.”
Third baseman Magana came through in the clutch, getting two RBI singles to lead the comeback.
“I was just trying to put the ball in play with two outs.” Magana said. “We needed some runs, but also some energy.”
Last Thursday, the Warriors sluggled it their with Pasadena City College, winning, 23-13.
“Offensively, it was a good game,” Bergeron said. “I was very satisfied with our hitting.”
However, Bergeron was not too pleased with his pitching or defensive game. The game was littered with fundamental miscues that Bergeron believed could have been avoided.
“We didn’t do nearly what I expected,” Bergeron said. “We gave up thirteen runs and committed six errors, and that’s not very chararteristic of this team.”
Freshman Larry Williams continued his torrird hitting, driving in five runs.
“We had a lot of walks, and as a team we had quality at bats,” Williams said. “We just hit the ball all over the place.”
