Mark Jebbia went 3-3 with his first homer of the season and Steven Reveles and Zach Zehner knocked in three runs apiece on Thursday as SBCC’s offense erupted for a 15-8 baseball win over Cuesta.
The Vaqueros (9-9, 3-2) won their third straight with their second-highest season total in runs and hits (17). The teams combined for 23 runs on 28 hits with three doubles, five triples and two homers.
Santa Barbara took a 2-0 lead in the second on an RBI single by Colby Tayler and a run-scoring triple by Cory Bloom.
Reveles went 4-5 with three RBIs on a day when all nine Vaquero batters had at least one hit. Zehner, Tony Simon and Bloom each had two hits.
Zehner came up with the bases loaded and one out in the fifth and promptly stroked the first of his two triples to left-center, driving in three runs to make it 5-1. The Vaqueros scored two in the sixth and sent 10 batters to the plate in the seventh, scoring six runs on three hits, two walks and a hit batter, to boost the lead to 13-3.
Connor Detko (2-4) held the Cougars (8-10, 2-3 WSC North) to three runs (two earned) on seven hits over seven innings.
“Connor did a great job of grinding through,” said coach Jeff Walker. “He didn’t have his ‘A stuff’ but his stuff was good enough to limit a pretty good hitting team to two earned runs.”
Zack Domingues went 3-5 for the Cougars and Myles Franklin, who entered as a pinch-hitter in the eighth, had an RBI double and a three-run homer in the ninth.
Jebbia led off the sixth with a line drive over the fence in left for SBCC’s second homer of the year and first at Pershing Park.
“I felt a lot more relaxed, things were slowing down for me,” said Jebbia, a sophomore first baseman. “In the sixth, the first pitch was a curveball in the dirt and I didn’t think much of it. He threw another one, much higher in the zone, and I got extended on it.
“It feels great to have everyone hit on the same day. We really showed how good we can be today.”
Reveles drove in two runs in the seventh with his third single in as many innings.
“We came up big in the RBI spots and split the gaps a few times with some key two-out hits,” Walker added. “It was great to see Jebbia rewarded for all his hard work. He’s done a great job of sticking with the process.”
The Vaqueros travel to Cuesta on Saturday at 1 p.m.
Cuesta ……. 000 100 223 — 8 11 1
SBCC ……… 020 032 62x — 15 17 4
Murillo, Peterson (6), Mullen (7), Kannenberg (8) and McCarthy, Hindle (8); Detko, Massengale (8) and Dinges W–Detko 2-4.L–Murillo 0-3.
2B–C: Domingues, Franklin. SB: Dinges. 3B–C: Hindle, Ruggles. SB: Bloom, Zehner 2. HR–C: Franklin (1), 9th inn., two on. SB: Jebbia (1), 6th inn., none on.
