Blake McFarland shut down Hancock’s attack and raised the postseason hopes of SBCC on Thursday with a 4-3 baseball victory at Pershing Park. McFarland, a 6-6 right-hander, tossed a seven-hit complete game with a season-high 11 strikeouts.
“It’s exactly what you want out of a third-year sophomore,” said coach Teddy Warrecker. “He demanded the ball. He was over 140 pitches in the eighth and ninth innings and he came up huge in his last home start.
“It’s a big tribute to his conditioning and his mental toughness.”
McFarland, who signed to play in his hometown at San Jose State next year, improved to 8-3 with his third complete game. He allowed just two earned runs, lowering his ERA to 2.99. McFarland got a double-play grounder to end the game for the second time in three days. He picked up his first save on Tuesday against Ventura, getting out of a bases-loaded jam in the ninth.
It was the fourth straight win and eighth in 10 games for SBCC (23-18, 11-13), which remained a game behind Ventura in the battle for third in the WSC North.
After Hancock’s Chris Mallory led off the game with a homer, outfielder Aaron Bauman answered with a two-run shot in the first, putting the Vaqueros (23-18, 11-13) ahead to stay, 2-1. Bauman’s team-leading sixth round-tripper landed on Castillo St. beyond the right-field fence.
The Vaqueros went ahead 4-1 in the second on Brad Marasco’s RBI single and Sean Costella’s alert sprint home from third after the ball rolled 10 feet from the catcher. It was the seventh straight home win for Santa Barbara, which is 16-6 at Pershing this season.
Zack Edgington will get the start in today’s regular-season finale at first-place Cuesta.
“All we can do is keep making a case for ourselves (for the playoffs),” said Warrecker. “Hancock is No. 6 in the RPI (Southern Cal power rankings) and we beat them. We have 24 wins now and our two losses in this round of league were 4-2 and 5-4.
“We’re playing very good baseball and we’re a dangerous team right now.”
SBCC 4, HANCOCK 3
Hancock …….. 102 000 010 — 3 7 1
SBCC …………. 220 000 00x — 4 8 1
Calhoun, Buchanan (9) and Plancich; McFarland and Keller. W–McFarland (8-3). L–Calhoun.
2B–H: Mallory. SB: Bauman, Trimble. HR–H: Mallory, 1st inn., none on. SB: Bauman (6), 1st inn., one on.
Records–H 22-19, 15-9. SB 24-18, 11-13.
