SBCC’s Zach Edgington turned in a spectacular performance on Thursday at Pershing Park with a school-record 21 strikeouts in a 4-2 baseball victory over Ventura.
The sophomore left-hander, who’s signed to play for UCSB next year, tossed a six-hitter for his second complete game. He didn’t walk a batter until there were two outs in the ninth.
Tommy White, the WSC’s top hitter at .438, had a two-run single in a three-run third as the third-place Vaqueros improved to 19-13 overall and 9-7 in the WSC North with four games remaining.
Zach Edgington fanned a school-record 21 batters at Pershing Park. (Vince Agapito Photo)
Edgington (6-3), who was clocked at 90 mph in the early innings, struck out at least two batters in eight of nine innings. He fanned four in the seventh (after a throwing error) and rang up the side in the first and the ninth. Eight of his Ks came with the batters looking at strike three, including all three outs in the ninth.
He struck out every batter in the lineup, getting shortstop Thomas Quackenbush for the first time on the final out. The 21 strikeouts moved the WSC leader into second in state Ks with 95, just three behind the leader.
“I knew I had a good amount of strikeouts but I didn’t know I had 21,” said Edgington. “That’s pretty cool. Everything was working for me. The curveball was there the whole time. My changeup wasn’t working at the start but I found it and I had good velo (velocity) and pretty good command with the fastball.”
After Ventura pulled within 3-2 with an unearned run in the seventh, catcher Steven Keller belted a two-out solo homer in the eighth, extending the lead to 4-2. The blast was the 49th of the year for the Vaqueros, tying the school record set in 44 games by the 2007 squad.
Keller had three of his team’s six hits and drove in two runs.
“At the beginning of the season, I said Zach was a bonafide ace,” noted SBCC coach Teddy Warrecker. “I didn’t know he had 21 strikeouts until I heard it after the game on the PA. I did know that he stranded three leadoff doubles by striking out guys with runners in scoring position.
“His pitch-count was high as a result of striking out so many guys. In the ninth, he had four three-ball counts and he ended up throwing 160 pitches. He was having a little bit of an issue with his groin last week and it was definitely affecting him. I said, ‘Just be honest with us if you’re not feeling 100 percent.’ Our training staff did a great job during the week getting him prepared.
“I felt like he still had a great fastball at the end of the game, so he wasn’t showing any external signs of fatigue. He struck out 21 and maybe he had to do that today because we didn’t do much offensively.”
The Vaqueros travel to Hancock on Saturday at 1 p.m.
SBCC 4, VENTURA 2
Ventura ……. 000 010 100 — 2 6 2
SBCC ………. 003 000 01x — 4 6 2
Martinez, Robles-Rivas (8) and Lipman; Edgington and Keller. W–Edgington 6-3. L–Martinez.
2B–V: Grattan, Gallardo, Gwynn. HR–SB: Keller (7), 8th inn., none on.
Records–VC 14-17, 6-10. SBCC 19-13, 9-7
