Dustin Babola outdueled SBCC’s Brendon Shoemake on Tuesday and Ventura used a pair of seventh-inning runs to beat the visiting Vaqueros 4-2 in a WSC baseball game.
Babola held the Vaqueros (8-10, 2-2) to two runs on eight hits over eight innings. He struck out eight and walked three. Shoemake (4-2) limited the Pirates (11-7, 2-2) to four runs (two earned) on eight hits in seven innings. He fanned six and walked three.
Right fielder Zach Zehner went 3-4 with three doubles for Santa Barbara. He’s 12th in the state with eight doubles. Joey Epperson had a run-scoring groundout in the first and Zehner drove in Epperson with a two-out double in the third, tying the game at 2.
Ventura took the lead on four straight singles with two outs in the seventh. Matthew Burke and Eric Contreras had RBI singles.
Zehner doubled to lead off the Santa Barbara ninth and Scott Zeman moved from shortstop to pitcher. Zeman got a groundout, strikeout and flyout to record his fourth save.
Santa Barbara was 2-14 with runners in scoring position.
“Shoemake threw well but their guy made pitches when he had to,” said SBCC coach Jeff Walker. “We had a lot of guys on base. We have to get more timely hits.”
The Vaqueros host Hancock on Friday at 2:30 p.m.
SBCC ……….. 101 000 000 — 2 8 2
Ventura …….. 110 000 20x — 4 8 2
Shoemake, Benenati (8) and Dinges; Babola, Zeman (9) and Burke. W–Babola 3-1. L–Shoemake 4-2. Save–Zeman 4.
2B–SB: Zehner 3.
