Brendon Shoemake hurls a pitch against Victor Valley. The righty struck out five batters and improved to 3-0 on the season.
Brendon Shoemake turned in his third straight solid pitching performance on Thursday, giving up just one run on three hits over eight innings and SBCC held on to beat Victor Valley 7-5 in a non-conference baseball game at Pershing Park.
Shortstop Steven Reveles went 2-3 with three RBIs and turned in some slick fielding that led to a pair of double plays.
“Everything was solid up until the ninth inning,” said Reveles, a freshman from Dos Pueblos High who leads the team in batting at .364. “We didn’t have any errors and everything was going smoothly.”
Reveles had eight assists and second baseman Joey Gonzalez had four. Gonzalez and Mark Jebbia had two hits each and Colin Eaton drove in two runs.
Santa Barbara (4-4) built a 5-1 lead on Jebbia’s RBI double and Reveles’ run-scoring single in the third. The Vaqueros extended the lead to 7-1 on an RBI triple by Reveles in the fifth and Eaton’s RBI single to left in the eighth.
Mitchell Oshima took the mound in the ninth and gave up three straight hits. He surrendered four runs but only one run was earned. Lucas Benenati entered with runners on first and second, two outs and his team ahead 7-3. He gave up a two-run double to Ronald Leon, then struck out Zack Bilsland to earn his first save.
Shoemake, a 6-4 right-hander, struck out five and walked three while improving to 3-0 and lowering his ERA to 2.25.
“I fell into some trouble early and the defense really helped me,” said Shoemake. “I settled down in the fourth.”
The Vaqueros host Canyons on Saturday at 1 p.m.
BOX SCORE:
Victor Valley 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 — 5 7 3
SBCC 0 3 2 0 1 0 0 1 x — 7 10 1
Montana, Strunk (4), Roark (7), Oliver (8) and Dilts, Dickinson (6); Shoemake, Oshima (9), Benenati (9) and Eaton. W–Shoemake 3-0. L–Montana 0-3. Save–Benenati 1.
2B–VV: Dilts, Leon. SB: Jebbia. 3B–SB: Reveles.
