Johnson, McGrady Pitch Great; Ghiorso Takes State Lead in Steals in Vaqs' 3-1 Win
By Jimmy Friery
SANTA BARBARA, CA – The Santa Barbara City College Baseball team won their nonconference home game against West Hills Coalinga on Wednesday, 3-1.
The pitchers' duel was part of a 4 nonconference games in 3 days stretch for SBCC, concluding Thursday at Riverside. The Vaqueros split a doubleheader Tuesday at Glendale, winning 5-0 before losing 12-9 in extra innings.
Despite it being spring break, the Vaqs pitching staff put on a clinic. Bradley Johnson and Max McGrady combined to allow just 3 hits over the 9 innings, striking out 7 and not allowing an earned run. They surrendered no extra base hits.
After 2 quick outs to start the game, an error kept the 1st inning alive for West Hills Coalinga. The next batter walked, and a single drove home the opening run of the game.
The Vaqueros responded with a 2-out rally of their own in the home half of the 1st. Presley Kosciusko doubled, and Sebastian Arguelles made up for the error by singling him home to tie the game at 1.
Johnson struck out the side in the 2nd, and SBCC took the lead in the 3rd thanks to some smallball and a Parker Hellekson RBI groundout.
In the 4th, the Vaqueros added another run. Arguelles led off the inning with a single, stole second, and advanced to third on an error. Jordan Harris brought him home via a sacrifice fly, and it was 3-1 SBCC.
The Vaqueros were in firm control the rest of the way; both teams managed just 1 runner in scoring position each over the final 5 innings. Max McGrady earned a save the hard way, pitching a scoreless final 3 innings, allowing just 1 baserunner and inducing 6 groundouts. Johnson's line ended at 6 innings, 2 hits, 1 unearned run, 4 walks, and 6 strikeouts, earning him a quality start and the win.
Kosciusko had 3 of the Vaqueros' 9 hits, and Arguelles was the other multi-hit Vaquero with the aforementioned 2. Surprisingly, the Vaqueros recorded no walks on the day, but Daniel Ghiorso and Zach Torres each stole a bag. Ghiorso's was his 23rd stolen base of the season, good for the state lead.
After playing at Riverside on Thursday, the Vaqueros resume conference play with a home matchup against Pierce on Tuesday.