Evan Mobley, Tony Faulkner, Louis Magadan and Joel Weeks all have one thing in common: they provided no relief in a demoralizing defeat. The Warriors hurt their chances for a shot at the South Coast Conference (SCC) championship losing to the Long Beach City Vikings 17-6, Tuesday.
ÿ “We’re very disappointed,” assistant coach Tom Bergeron said.ÿ “We were battling for the conference championship, but now we are two games out with five to go.”
The loss was the worst of the season for the Warriors, who fell to 23-6, 14-5.ÿ Meanwhile, the Vikings are riding a three-game unbeaten streak, improving to 12-19, 7-12.
The series finale will be played on Warrior Field today at 2:30 p.m.
ÿ “The (Warriors) are a very good team,” Vikings coach Casey Crook said.ÿ “I’m sure they will be fired up and ready to go today.”
In Tuesday’s game, the Warriors struck first, as sophomore Anthony Garcia doubled down the left field line. Ryan Sharman came home for the Warriors, who took an early 1-0 lead.ÿ In the top of the third, they stretched the lead to 2-0 as Joel Weeks scored on a fielder’s choice.
Starting pitcher Bobby Nunn also started out strong, mowing down the opposition with ease in the first couple of innings.ÿ However, he would not last past the third inning, as he loaded the bases with two outs. The Vikings scored three times to take a 3-2 lead.
In the top of the fifth inning, the Warriors were trailing 6-2. With one run in, and a runner on second base, freshman Larry Williams then tripled to cut the deficit to 6-4.ÿ The Vikings went to their bullpen and on the first pitch he saw,
Sharman deposited his team-leading sixth home run to left field to tie the game at six.
However, the Warriors could have had a bigger inning.ÿ Before Williams hit the triple sophomore Bart Babineaux was picked off at first base on a questionable call by the umpire.
ÿ The Vikings responded quickly, scoring four runs of their own in the bottom of the inning.ÿ The bullpen did not get the job done, which seemed to deflate any chances of a Warrior comeback.
ÿ “The bullpen wasn’t able to locate pitches,” assistant coach ShaneÿSchumaker said.ÿ “They got ahead of guys, but they weren’t able to put them away.ÿ I thought that was the difference today.”
ÿ Tom Bergeron said that the bullpen was exceptional in their two previous victories over Cerritos College,but agreed that the bullpen did not have it Tuesday.
ÿ “They did very well the last two games,” Tom Bergeron said.ÿ”But today I was very disappointed that no one really stepped up today.”
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