A strong pitching performance from Wylan Nelson and RBIs from six players powered the SBCC baseball to an 8-3 win over Alan Hancock to complete a 2-0 sweep of the Super Regionals series and book a spot in the four-team 3C2A Regional Finals.
The Vaqueros (28-15) will travel to top-seeded Palomar for a best-of-three series beginning Friday. The series winner advances to the State Championships the following week in Irvine.
Nelson, a former Ventura High standout, went eight innings and struck out 10 in earning the series-clinching win against SBCC’s county rival, who ended the Vaqueros’ three-year run of Western State Conference North titles.
Parker Hellekson erased a 1-0 deficit with a two-run double in the bottom of the first inning
Hancock tied the score at 3-3 with two-run homer in the third. SBCC responded in the bottom of the inning with a RBI sacrifice fly from Ramos Deworken and never looked back.
Nelson retired the next eight batters he faced. He would allow just four hits—all singles—the rest of the game.
The Vaqueros scored three in the fourth thanks to Lucas Carlisle‘s sacrifice fly, Bradley Cekada‘s RBI single, and a two-out error that would have ended the inning. William Matuszak‘s RBI single in the fifth made it 8-3.
Drew Cappel relieved Nelson in the ninth and got the final three outs.
