Box Score | Season Stats

April 12, 2008

Baseball:

Arzate delivers walk-off win as Vikings rally to defeat El Camino 4-3

Sophomore shortstop Armando Arzate’s two-run single in the bottom of the ninth inning gave the Long Beach City College baseball team a 4-3 walk-off win over visiting El Camino College in a big South Coast Conference game on Saturday at Joe Hicks Memorial Field.

The victory improved the Vikings to 24-12 overall and 11-6 in the SCC. El Camino dropped to 21-12 and 10-5 in conference play.

The Vikings sit one game behind El Camino for second place in the SCC standings. These two teams close out the regular-season series with a 2:30 p.m. game at El Camino on Tuesday (Apr. 15).

Sophomore Randy Serrato went the distance for his second complete-game win of the season. Serrato improved to 8-1 after allowing three unearned runs and five hits.

It wasn’t a typical outing by the right-hander as he walked two, hit three batters, and committed a balk.

But Serrato was able to escape trouble during most of the ball game except in the top of the third inning.

El Camino’s Rey Lopez reached base and went to second on a throwing error by LBCC shortstop Hector Iribe to lead off the inning. Serrato then nailed Joe Morgan with a pitch.

With no outs, Serrato got Ryan Lopez to hit a come-backer to the mound. Serrato was able to get Rey Lopez out on third on the fielder’s choice. Matt Mercier followed that with another ground ball out as El Camino had runners on second and third with two outs.

Wayne Larcom then came up and hit a deep fly ball to the right-center field gap. Freshman Cameron Sadler couldn’t hold on to the ball as both runners came in to score and Larcom was on with a three-base error.

Bob Hosken followed that with a RBI single through the left side of the infield to give El Camino a 3-1 lead.

El Camino starter Ken Gravley kept that Vikings off-balance all game. Despite allowing 10 hits, Gravely was able to strand 11 runners.

LBCC got a run in the second thanks to a RBI single by Sean Beckley, but the Vikings were kept silent until the eighth.

With one out, Long Beach got back-to-back singles from Serrato and Beckley. Beckley was forced out on a fielder’s choice grounder by Kevin Castillo to put runners and first and third with two outs.

Pinch hitter Josh Rush then delivered with a RBI single to cut the Warriors lead to 3-2.

And in the ninth, Gravely was lifted for Beau Dobbs.

With one out, third baseman Trevor Costin earned a walk and went to third base on a double to the left-center field gap by right fielder Brian Loard to set up Arzate’s heroics.

Arzate, a defensive replacement after Iribe was lifted for a pinch hitter, lined a 2-2 pitch from Dobbs over the head of El Camino first baseman Ramon Marquez and into right field.

Costin came in to score easily and pinch runner Brett Mahoney slide into home before the throw of Dan Gleiberman to seal the win and empty out the LBCC dugout.

Dobbs (1-3) earned the loss for El Camino, allowing two runs and two hits in 1/3 of an inning.

Beckley went a perfect 4 for 4 with a RBI to lead Long Beach at the plate.