Freshman third baseman Payton Milone went 3-5 with three RBIs on Tuesday at Pershing Park but SBCC still came up short in a 7-5, 10-inning baseball loss to El Camino.
The Warriors (5-7) led 1-0 through six innings before both offenses came alive. El Camino snapped a 5-5 tie in the 10th on RBI singles by Daniel Timmerman and Justin McCullough.
Starting pitcher Brendon Shoemake pitched well for the Vaqueros, giving up just one run on five hits in 6 2/3 innings. He struck out four and hit two batters on a day when four SBCC pitchers issued 11 free passes (six hit batters, five walks).
“Brendon did a good job, I thought that was his best performance of the season,” said Vaquero coach Jeff Walker. “We did a good job of coming back after we dug ourselves a hole. We’ve just got to play better.
“We’re actually going to be a pretty good team when we stop beating ourselves.”
Dalton Erb, a 6-8 freshman right-hander, was solid for El Camino, tossing seven-hit ball over seven innings. He gave up three unearned runs and struck out 10.
The Vaqueros (6-6) took a 3-1 lead with three unearned runs in the seventh. Steven Reveles and Milone had run-scoring singles to right field. After the Warriors went back on top 5-3, SBCC staged a dramatic rally to tie it in the bottom of the ninth.
Tony Simon opened with a walk and Cory Bloom, Ryan Crowe and Andy Smith followed with singles. The Vaqueros had two runners thrown out at third, however, and were down to their last out.
Steven Reveles walked to load the bases and Milone followed with a single down the right-field line that scored Crowe and Smith and tied the game at 5. Zach Zehner hit a grounder to third and Rex Calkins tagged out Reveles to complete a rare feat, making all three putouts at third base in the same inning.
Zehner went 3-4 to extend his hitting streak to nine games. His team-leading batting average of .455 is ninth-best in California.
Reveles, the leadoff hitter, had two hits and the top three batters in the Vaquero order (Reveles, Milone and Zehner) went 8-13 with four RBIs. The rest of the lineup batted .160 on the day.
“We have too many holes in our lineup,” said Walker. “The good news is we’ve started to hit but we need some sophomores to start stepping up.”
The Vaqueros travel to Torrance for a rematch with El Camino on Thursday at 2 p.m.
(10 innings)
El Camino ….….. 000 010 031 2 — 7 10 3
SBCC …………… 000 000 302 0 — 5 12 3
Erb, Nelson (8) and Delgado; Shoemake, Van Aken (7), Magnuson (8), Villegas (8) and Crowe. W–Nelson 1-0. L–Villegas 0-2.
2B–EC: Palmer. SB: Smith.
