SBCC’s Greg Pellici fanned the side in the ninth inning Tuesday to earn his third straight save and close out a 4-3 baseball victory over Pasadena at Pershing Park. He hit the leadoff batter and watched him reach third on a passed ball and stolen base before striking out Brian Smith looking to end the game.
“I was just throwing fastballs — hard, hard and harder,” said Pellici, a sophomore left-hander from Middletown, Conn. “The thing I like about closing is the adrenaline. It’s all up to you. Hit or miss. You either get a save or you get a loss.”
The Vaqueros (7-1) scored four runs in their first at-bat on just one hit, an RBI double by Aaron Bauman. Pasadena (2-2) commited three errors in the inning. SBCC won its fifth straight game despite getting only three hits.
“Baseball is predictably unpredictable,” said coach Teddy Warrecker. “Not to take anything away from their pitcher’s performance but I thought we had terrible at-bats, we didn’t hit the ball hard and didn’t find the barrell. But we did just enough to win.”
The Vaqueros got 6 1/3 innings of one-run relief from Dos Pueblos High product Ryan Gardner, Chad Caraccioli and Pellici. Gardner allowed Pasdena’s third run on a two-out bloop single to center in the sixth.
“That was Ryan Gardner’s first extended outing of the year and take away a two-strike breaking ball that he didn’t get out of the strike zone and that’s a near-perfect effort,” said Warrecker. “Chad Caraccioli retired seven out of seven hitters and after that little hiccup in the ninth, Greg dominated with his fastball. That’s why we give the ball to him in the ninth inning.
“He’s the best closer that I’ve had since I’ve been here. The biggest thing for him is remaining calm and not pitching with emotion.”
SBCC travels to Compton for a 5:30 p.m. game on Thursday before playing host to Antelope Valley on Saturday at 1 p.m.
SBCC 4, PASADENA 3
Pasadena ……….. 002 001 000 — 3 5 4
SBCC ……………… 400 000 00x — 4 3 1
Reyes, Grocieux (8) and Smith; Edgington, Gardner (3), Caraccioli (6), Pellici (9) and Keller. W–Gardner (1-0). L–Reyes. S–Pellici (3).
2B–SBCC: Bauman.
