SBCC Baseball overcame an early deficit and pulled out a 10-9 extra-inning win over Allan Hancock in the SoCal Super Regional opener on Thursday in Santa Maria.
The Vaqueros and Bulldogs will meet again on Friday at 2 p.m. in Santa Maria. SBCC would advance to the SoCal Finals with a win, while Allan Hancock would force a winner-take-all game three on Saturday at 1 p.m.
Allan Hancock dominated the opening stages of the game, scoring three runs in the first, adding two more in the second and taking a 5-0 lead after three innings of play.
SBCC finally got on the board in the top of the fourth when Lucas Carlisle came in to score on a wild pitch to cut the deficit to 5-1.
After a scoreless fifth, the Vaquero offense really woke up in the sixth as Sean Asperger drove in a run on a sacrifice fly, Parker Hellekson roped an RBI double and Elijah Garcia came through with a two-run single to bring the game to a 5-5 tie.
The Bulldogs answered by retaking the lead in the bottom half of the sixth on a two-run single, but SBCC’s bats stayed hot and took its first lead of the day with a three-run seventh.
Brad Cekada deposited a double into right field to tie the game at 7-7, and Asperger followed with an RBI single to take an 8-7 lead.
The back-and-forth continued in the bottom of the seventh as the Bulldogs plated two more runs to regain the lead at 9-8 heading into the eighth.
Wylan Nelson provided a clutch swing for SBCC in the top of the eighth, singling through the left side to score Damos Deworken and even the game once again, this time at 9-9.
While Cooper Tinkey and Adam Tripp handled the first seven innings on the mound for the Vaqueros, Cedar Cline came in for the eighth and supplied a scoreless frame.
SBCC couldn’t push a run across in the ninth, giving the Bulldogs a chance to walk it off. Cline recorded a strikeout but surrendered a trio of free passes in the bottom of the ninth to load the bases.
Drew Cappel then took the ball from Cline and got the next batter to ground into a double play, sending the game into extra innings.
After a strikeout to begin the top of the 10th, Carlisle reached and made his way to second base on a Bulldog error to spark a rally.
Cole Ide then immediately came through with a single into right field and Carlisle came around to score to take a 10-9 lead. Despite two more batters reaching, the Vaqueros couldn’t push across an insurance run.
They didn’t need any insurance runs, however, as Max Collins climbed onto the bump and fired a 1-2-3 bottom of the 10th to give SBCC the win.
Cekada and Ide led the Vaquero offense with three hits apiece, while Carlisle tallied a pair of hits and came around to score four times.
Asperger and Elijah Garcia each had two hits and drove in two runs as well for SBCC.