Vaqueros Sweep Mt. San Jacinto in SoCal Regional

By Jimmy Friery

SANTA BARBARA, CA – The Santa Barbara City College Baseball team swept Mt. San Jacinto in their best-of-3 3C2A SoCal Regional series this weekend at Pershing Park. 

The Vaqueros rode dominate starting pitching performances from Jake Villar (1-run complete game) and Coleton Dahl (7 innings, 1 run) to handedly win both games. Timely hitting was key, as well, as a handful of 2-out RBIs and hits in high leverage spots allowed them to pull away.

Game 1, Friday, 8-1 W:

Lefty ace Jake Villar got the ball to start the Vaqueros' postseason, entering with an 8-0 record and a 2.33 ERA. 

After a scoreless 1^st from him, Daniel Ghiorso's leadoff double was followed by an Ethan Rodriguez walk. Sacrifice bunting, Presley Kosciusko's bunt was perfect down the third base line, and actually earned him a hit. To add to it, the ball was thrown away, and Ghiorso ended up scoring from second.

With second and third and nobody out, the Vaqueros stranded both runners in scoring position, but nonetheless had a 1-0 lead.

In the bottom of the 3^rd, a 2-out rally concluded with Patrick Walsh's RBI single to double SBCC's lead.

Villar struck out the side in the 5^th as part of a streak of 10 straight batters retired. 

Giving their starter more insurance, the Vaqs offense put up a crooked number in the 6^th. Ghiorso's bases loaded sacrifice fly made it 3-0, and Kosciusko drove in 2 more on a line drive through the right side. 

Now a 5-run lead, Villar concluded 8 scoreless innings allowing just 4 hits—all singles—and no walks. 

Adding more in the 8^th, Rodriguez's RBI HBP with the bases loaded capped off his perfect 0 for 0, 3-walk, 2-hit-by-pitch day at the plate. Kosciusko, the next batter, almost had a grand slam to dead center, but settled for a rare 2-RBI sacrifice fly. His drive just short of the 390' sign forced the center fielder to make a running catch, and the weak throw back to the infield made the relay too slow for the hustling Ghiorso from second. 

A solo homer in the top of the 9^th ruined the shutout, but Villar nonetheless struck out the last batter to put an exclamation point on his 94-pitch complete game win.

It would be the second straight complete game for Villar in a big matchup. His 3-hit CG shutout over Hancock on April 23 clinched the conference championship. The Vaqueros will no doubt look to him in game 1 of next weekend's Super Regional.

Kosciusko led the team with 4 RBIs and was one of three Vaqueros with 2 hits (Walsh, Sebastian Arguelles). Besides Ghiorso's leadoff double, Zach Torres was the only other Vaquero with an extra base hit—another double.

Game 2, Saturday, 13-1 W:

The middle game of the 3-game series, the Vaqueros were slated as the away team. Batting first, opposing starter Julian Castro looked efficient, retiring the side in order in the 1^st. Or so he thought…

Bad defense was the theme of the game for Mt. San Jacinto. A weak ground ball to second looked to give Castro a 5-pitch first inning, but a high hop was misplayed by the second baseman. Sebastian Arguelles singled as the next batter, and Patrick Walsh followed with a double to score a run. Vince Gamberdella then hit another routine grounder to second that was booted again, scoring Arguelles.

Not only did Castro have to throw more than a dozen extra pitches, but the Vaqueros were up 2-0 before Mt. San Jacinto even stepped in to the batter's box.

Coleton Dahl toed the slab for SBCC, striking out 2 in a dominant bottom of the 1^st and faced the minimum through 2 innings.

In the top of the 3^rd, with 2 outs, Arguelles hit a hard line drive that the right fielder got crossed up on, hitting off his glove while diving. Though not an error, the next play surely was. On a routine ground ball, the third baseman tried to throw the short way to second, but threw it into right center. Arguelles was able to pop up from his slide and come around to score before Gamberdella doubled home another run in the next at bat.

Reminiscent of the 1^st inning, the Vaqueros scored 2 unearned runs with 2 outs thanks to an error keeping the inning alive in the first place. Regardless of how they were scored, SBCC was happy with the 4-0 lead after 3.

In the bottom of the 5^th, Dahl worked out of a bases loaded 1-out jam to preserve the shutout. In the 6^th, he stranded runners at first and second, too.

The Vaqueros batters tacked on 2 more in the 7^th via another 2-out rally. Presley Kosciusko lined a double that the right fielder spun around twice on. Arguelles singled him home, and Walsh continued the trend with an RBI double.

Mt. San Jacinto starter Julian Castro would have had an excellent outing with better defense, but his line finished at a misleading 7 innings, 6 runs (2 earned), 8 hits, 2 walks, and 4 strikeouts. He exited down 6-0.

Meanwhile, Dahl was 1 pitch away from 7 scoreless innings, but surrendered a 2-out RBI single. He would strike out the next better to complete 7 innings with 1 run on 5 hits, 5 walks, and 7 punchouts.  

Jordan Rico came on in relief in the bottom of the 8^th, hoping to preserve the 6-1 lead. A single, walk, and infield single loaded the bases with nobody out, and head coach Jeff Walker called on Halen Jaden Guerrero to escape the jam. He did just that, earning a strikeout, lineout, and groundout to prevent any runs from scoring.

The Vaqueros followed that up by completely blowing the game open. 11 batters came to the plate in the top of the 9^th, erupting for 7 runs on 7 hits and increasing the lead to an insurmountable 13-1.

Guerrero recorded the final 3 outs to secure the win, and ironically, a save. Since he entered the game with the tying run on deck in the 8^th, it was a save opportunity, despite the final score being 13-1.

8 of the Vaqueros' 15 total hits came from Arguelles and Walsh in the 4 and 5 spots in the lineup—they both had 4 hits apiece. Gamberdella also had a multi-hit game with 2, driving in 3 runs, as did Daniel Ghiorso, reaching base 4 times with 2 doubles and 2 walks.

Both of the Vaqs' next opponents—Golden West and Santa Ana—are familiar foes with one another. Golden West, like the Vaqueros, won their conference—the Orange Empire. Santa Ana finished second in the Orange Empire.

Moving on to the Super Regionals, #3 Golden West will host #6 Santa Ana and the #10 Vaqueros late next week in a double elimination format.