Strong hitting, pitching leads to first place

In a span of six days the surging men's baseball team has found itself on the top of the South Coast Conference with three victories and a 3-1 record. Beginning with a 5-3 win over East Los Angeles College on March 4, followed by a 4-2 defeat of Southern California ranked No. 2 El Camino College and ending with a 15-13 triumph over Cerritos College, the Lancers have asserted themselves into first place in the SCC.

The streak can be attributed to stellar play from a variety of Lancers. Hot bats from freshmen Jose Serna and Mike Vasquez, sophomores Jeff Stirling, Brian Smith, Enrique Reynoso and Mike Flynn all have played a part.

The Lancers have also cashed in on phenomenal pitching contributions during the streak. Sophomore Cameron Copping hurled a seven inning shutout in the El Camino knockoff and sophomore John Paul Salazar recorded two saves on both the second and third victories.

Sophomore Max Romero has managed to help out on both the mound and at the plate during the string of wins. He recorded two pitching victories on two starts against ELAC and Cerrtios. Romero was also 8-10, with six RBIs and five runs throughout the stretch.

"Max is doing great job overall, both in hitting and pitching. He has had an outstanding past three games," said Head Coach Evan O'Meara.

In the ELAC game at the CSULA baseball field, Romero's pitching and an aggressive third inning at the plate was all the Lancers needed to secure a win.

Freshman outfielder Vincent Pantaleo opened up the inning with a single to right centerfield. First baseman Enrique Reynoso advanced Pantaleo to third, putting the Lancers in scoring position. A hit by Serna scored second baseman Alex Acevedo, which gave the Lancers a 1-0 lead over the Huskies.

The Lancers ended the inning with two more runs by Pantaleo and Serna, extending the lead to 3-0.

It was O'Meara's first win against the Huskies since he became head coach.

"I knew, no matter what, this would be a good game," said O'Meara. "It's a personal vendetta."

Copping, the starting pitcher in the El Camino game, stepped up to deliver a valuable performance. He went for seven innings giving up no runs, only three hits and five strikeouts.

Salazar solidified his first of two saves in a row and the loss of the premier ECC by recording the last two outs of the game.

The team racked up the last win at home on Tuesday beating the Cerritos Falcons 15-13.

"We tried to make it interesting" said Head Coach O'Meara as the Lancers just pulled off the win against the Falcons.

The Lancers started the game off hitting up a storm in the first five innings.

Razi went 2-4 with a triple and a double, Vasquez went 3-5 and Smith went 4-5 with three RBIs for a threesome of remarkable hitting days.

With two runs in the bottom of the second by Razi and Smith, the Lancers would trail only by one going into the third.

The Lancers would go three more innings scoring five in the third, three in the fourth and four in the fifth.

Romero left the Lancers with a 14-5 lead in the top of the sixth.

With a 10 run comeback, the Falcons gave the Lancers a run for their money.

The Falcons answered back to the deficit with four runs in the top of the sixth, one run in the eighth and three runs to close out the game.

"The team never stopped competing. They put great pressure on the other team," said Coach O'Meara.

" If we need to improve on anything it's the middle relief. If we can't hold the team down after a huge lead we can get in trouble," said O'Meara.

The Lancers will attempt to defend their first place spot and extend the win streak to four against El Camino College - Compton Center today at 2 p.m. at Brookside Park.