Report by LBCC

The Long Beach City College baseball team pounded out 14 hits and sophomore Jared Smith pitched his way out of numerous jams as the Vikings beat rival Cerritos College 7-3 in a South Coast Conference game on Saturday at Joe Hicks Memorial Field.

The Vikings couldn’t buy a run in Thursday’s 2-0 loss at Cerritos, but bounced back by scoring runs often at home.

With the score tied 1-1, the Vikings took the lead for good with a three-run second-inning off Cerritos starting pitcher Skye Severns.

Left fielder Stephon Brown and center fielder Joe Lent led off with back-to-back singles. After first baseman Kenny Uyetake moved them over with a sacrifice bunt, second baseman Justin Moore plated a run with his ground out to second base.

Shortstop Cory Buchheim followed that with a RBI double down the right-field line, and a two-out error by Cerritos second baseman Matt Palmer on third baseman Edwin Santiago’s grounder allowed the third run of the inning to come home.

The Vikings added a run in the bottom of the fifth thanks to a RBI double by Lent and broke the game open with two more runs in the sixth after catcher Jonathan Keener and designated hitter Brian Compton plated runs with sacrifice flies.

Cerritos rallied for two runs off Smith in the top of the seventh to chase him from the ball game. Designated hitter Jacob Eaton nailed a RBI double off reliever Keith Myrwold before Michael Kerman came in to record the final out and keep the damage at a minimum.

The Falcons were busy with the bat as well, collecting 13 hits in the ball game, including 10 off Smith. But he stranded runners in the first, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth innings on his way to the win. Smith struck out three and walked just one over 6 2/3 innings while improving to 1-3 overall.

Buchheim (3 for 4, 3 runs, 1 RBI), Brown (3 for 5, 2 runs), and Lent (3 for 4, 1 run, 1 RBI) all had three hits for Long Beach (8-13, 5-4 SCC). Keener (1 for 4) also had two RBI.

Severns (0-1) earned the loss for Cerritos (8-12, 4-5 SCC). He allowed four runs (three earned) and five hits in 1 2/3 innings. First baseman Tim Soonthorngarun was 3 for 5, including a first-inning RBI double, to lead the Falcons at the plate.

Long Beach returns to action on Tuesday (Mar. 23) when it hosts L.A. Harbor College in a 2:30 pm SCC game.