With a rocky start being down 0-2 in the first inning, but as a result of accumulated errors of the opposing team the Long Beach City College baseball team opened their 3 game series against East Los Angeles with a 7-3 win on Tuesday.
After allowing 2 runs to be scored in the first inning, Lbcc pitcher Jake Habelitz was locked in and didn’t allow any more runs to be scored in the remaining 6 innings he pitched.
Despite a shaky start for Habelitz, the pitcher quickly found his stride and didn’t let the 2 early runs shake him for the remainder of the game.
The Vikings put on a strong hitting performance from the start and immediately stole the lead from the Huskies in their first at-bat.
Long Beach scored 2 runs in the bottom of the first inning thanks to a single from Moises Guzman, with the bases loaded it led to bringing in 2 of the players that had gotten on base.
An error by the East Los Angeles defense allowed the Vikings baseball team to score a third run and go up 3-2 before heading to the second inning.
Justin Santiago added another run in the fourth by hitting a single that brought in Brian Sanders to give Long Beach a two-run lead.
By the end of the 6th inning, the Vikings were up 7-2 thanks to hits from Sanders and a triple from Santiago that brought in two more runs.
“I started getting confident and getting ahead of guys. The curveball was definitely the game changer today,” Habelitz said.
“My last outing was probably my worst outing,” Habelitz added. “So it’s about bouncing back and having that confidence and knowing that I’m a good pitcher.”
Head coach Casey Crooks talked about how he was happy with Habelitz’s body language after the first inning since that is something that they have been working on.
“It’s a pretty common thing in baseball as a starting pitcher to struggle to get ready for that first inning,” Crooks said.
“I think it’s a challenge for every starting pitcher to figure out what my routine is going to be so I can go out there and hit the ground running,” Crooks said.
By the time Habelitz was pulled out of the game during the top of the 8th inning, and replaced by Marcellus Henry, he had piled up 10 strikeouts and improved to a 3-1 record on the year as a pitcher.
The 2 runs that East Los Angeles scored early on did not reflect the eventual outcome of the game, as the Huskies’ offense struggled and was only able to add 1 more run to their total in the remaining 8 innings.
With the win, Long Beach improved to 23-12 on the season and 14-4 at home.