Freshman shortstop Justin Moore’s ninth-inning single drove in sophomore third baseman David Compton to complete a late-game comeback, as the Long Beach City College baseball team beat visiting Orange Coast College 9-8 in a non-conference game at LBCC’s Joe Hicks Memorial Field on Friday.
The Vikings took game two of the three-game series for their first win of the season to improve to 1-3 overall. The two teams close out the series with the rubber match on Saturday at 12 pm at LBCC.
The game appeared to be over early, as the Vikings led the Pirates 6-2 heading into the top of the fifth inning.
OCC posted a pair of runs in the fifth to trail 6-4 before freshman center fielder Joe Lent smashed a solo homerun to left in the bottom of the fifth to give LBCC the 7-4 advantage.
But Orange Coast put together a rally of its own, scoring four runs in the top of the eighth to go up 8-7.
Long Beach came right back to tie it up in the bottom of the eighth. Sophomore second baseman Randy Guite walked to lead off the inning. After a sacrifice bunt moved him to second, sophomore catcher Jonathan Keener smoked a double to left-center off OCC’s Jeff Terzo to even the score.
OCC threatened in the top of the ninth, but Long Beach freshman reliever Johnny Fageaux was able to strand a pair of runners to set up the Vikings’ final rally.
Compton led off the bottom ninth with a sharp single to left, then advanced to third base thanks to an errant pickoff throw by OCC’s Kyle Krogman.
With the winning run on third with no outs, OCC pulled its defense in and moved its right fielder to play as a fifth infielder.
Moore lofted a fly ball to left that deflected off the glove of Kris Martin for the game-winning hit.
Keener was 3 for 5 with 3 RBI to lead the Vikings at the plate. Compton was 3 for 4 and scored a pair of runs. Fageaux (1-0) earned the win in relief. Sophomore Matt Johnson tossed seven innings and allowed four earned runs and seven hits in the no-decision.
For Orange Coast (2-1), Krogman picked up the loss. First baseman Matt Glazier was 2 for 4 with 2 RBI, including a solo homerun, to lead the Pirates’ offense.
Reports From LBCC