The baseball game was tied up at one as Long Beach City College had two on in the fifth inning. The visitors put on a successful hit and run, scoring one run and putting two in scoring position on an RBI double by the Vikings left fielder Tristin Chamberlain.
The Vikings ( 23-11,15-4 SCC) went on to score two in the fifth inning which was the difference as Long Beach went on to beat El Camino (23-11, 12-7 SCC) by the final of 4-2 on Tuesday.
“They capitalized on mistakes,” Fernley said. “And that fifth inning where they end up scoring two they did a good job of hit and running, but it really comes down to their pitcher making pitches all day long and getting out of jams.”
The top two teams in each conference automatically make the playoffs. After the loss Tuesday, the Warriors were unable to gain any ground on the top two teams in the South Coast Conference (SCC,) with just two games left in the regular season.
Long Beach and Cerritos College hold the top two spots in the SCC as El Camino sits behind them at third.
“If you finish third or below in conference you go into the at large pool and there are six teams that get a bid,” Fernley said. “I believe if we win the next two games we’ll get in.”
Vikings’ starting pitcher Daniel Rocha went eight innings, giving up two runs on six hits and struck out nine batters on the day. Rocha is now 7-2 on the season with a 2.04 era.
On the other end, Warriors’ freshman starting pitcher Cassius Hamm went seven innings, giving up four runs on eight hits and struck out six batters.
“I felt really good, it was a low scoring game we were in there the whole time,” Hamm said. “All of my stuff was working and I threw a lot of strikes, but they came out on top today.”
The offense for the Warriors responded early in the game being down by one in the second inning when freshman second baseman and number nine hitter Kyle Henmi tied up the game on a RBI single up the middle.
“I just try and take good at bats,” Henmi said. “I try and get on and turn over that line up for the top guys to get me in.”
The Warriors travel to Long Beach to play game two of the series on Thursday at 2:30 p.m.
