A Fullerton miscommunication led to sophomore Ryan Geck sliding home to secure the victory in the 12th inning for Long Beach City College men’s baseball 6-5 over Fullerton on Friday.
This comes after a big loss at Fullerton on Wednesday where they fell 12-6 to the hornets.
Sophomore reliever Max Sasaki subbed in the 10th inning and pitched the final three innings scoreless including some crucial strikeouts to bring home the game for the Vikings.
“Obviously Max Sasaki pitched really tough in those extra innings and you know that’s something we’ve done a few times already come back and win a game or get a walk-off late innings so that’s probably our number one strength right now is that we don’t give up and we can win games like that so it was good for it to show up again today,” Head coach Casey Crook said.
The game was defined by Fullerton’s mistakes as they gave up runs in the fifth inning and eventually in the 12th off miscommunication and errors.
“We were definitely good, I mean we were pretty slow in the beginning, we couldn’t get that much hits but the team just tagged the loss and we won. It was pretty good honestly,” Sasaki said.
12 innings made this game the longest game the Vikings have played all season.
“I think it’s a lot of pressure. I think they put a lot of pressure on themselves. It’s hard to simulate those kinds of things in practice but they also had fun doing it so I think that’s why we can win games like that because they don’t freeze up. I’m not saying we played great but they don’t freeze up and they go for the win and they stay tough,” Crook said. .
This improves the Vikings record to 7-3 which is good for second in the South Coast Conference where they will start conference play on Tuesday.
The team finished 16-8 last year, good for third in the conference and is looking to make their way back to the top of the standings.
Sasaki believes that the team still has some messes to clean up but that in the end they are going to win the conference.
“I feel good because we know we can win games, I don’t think our pitching is quite figured out but we’ve played a pretty tough schedule so overall I feel good about this team, I think you know traditionally we compete for conference championships and playoff spots and I think this team is right there with the teams that have come before them,” said Crook.
The team looks to start off conference play with a win at Pasadena City College next Tuesday.