Box Score

February 3, 2007

Baseball:

Slow start for Vikings continues, drop home opener to Chaffey

It’s been a tough start for the defending state champion Long Beach City College baseball team in 2007. The Vikings lost their home opener and sixth straight game to Chaffey College by a final score of 7-2 on Saturday afternoon at Joe Hicks Memorial Field.

Just last year, the Vikings won a school-record 41 games. This season, LBCC is off to one of its worst starts in the program’s history.

In today’s game, five costly errors hurt the Vikings. Sophomore starting pitcher Josh Williams allowed six runs, only one earned, over 6.1 innings to pick up the loss. He was tagged for 11 hits.

Chaffey jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the second inning and never looked back.

Long Beach got on the board in the fourth inning. Freshman right fielder Curtis Thompson had an RBI single that scored freshman first baseman Derek Wurtz to cut Chaffey’s lead to 3-1.

But Chaffey posted two runs in the fifth and single scores in the seventh and eighth to put the game out of reach at 7-1.

The Vikings rallied for a run in the ninth. Thompson nailed a one-out triple to left-center and came in to score on a single by sophomore center fielder A.J. Bancroft.

Thompson had two of the Vikings’ six hits, going 2 for 4 with 1 run and a RBI.

For Chaffey (5-1), Brian Lewis picked up the win, allowing one unearned run and four hits in five innings of work. Left fielder Mychal Johnson was 4 for 5 with a run to lead the Panthers at the plate.

Long Beach (0-6) returns to action on Tuesday (Feb. 6) when it hosts College of the Desert in a 2 pm non-conference game.