Left-hander Lucas Jacobsen struck out a season-high 10 in six innings on Tuesday and SBCC piled up 17 hits in a 12-4 baseball rout of Hancock in Santa Maria.
Jacobsen (4-2) allowed two runs on six hits and walked just one. He’s second on the team with 31 strikeouts in 31 innings.
James Hill went 2-4 with two RBI and hit his second homer of the year – a leadoff blast in the second inning. Hill is the only Vaquero with a home run this year. Cameron Jones, a former star at Righetti High, had a two-run triple in the third, igniting a six-run eruption that gave the Vaqueros a 7-1 lead.
SBCC won its third straight game to improve to 15-5 overall and 8-4 after the first round of WSC North play. The Vaqueros are tied for second with Cuesta, one game behind No. 4 Oxnard.
The Vaqueros moved up to No. 5 in the Southern Cal Coaches’ Poll that was released on Tuesday.
Hancock (6-15, 3-9) dropped its eighth straight conference game after starting 3-1. Colby Barrick and Colton Studebaker led the Bulldogs with three hits apiece.
SBCC had six players with two hits – Hill, Matt Henderson, Brandon Evans, Connor McManigal, Dallas Bacon and Noeh Martinez. McManigal, Colby Taylor and Nic Bereaud all had doubles and Bereaud drove in his first run of the year with a sacrifice fly in the ninth.
Hill added an RBI triple in the fourth that stretched the lead to 8-1. The sophomore catcher from Monterey has had two hits in four of his last five games and is batting .471 during that stretch with eight RBIs.
The Vaqueros will host Moorpark on Thursday at 2:30 p.m.
