The City College Vaquero baseball team lost to the Cuesta Cougars 12-10 at Saturday’s home game, but not without a seventh-inning push that kept the score close.
The loss puts the team at 17-21 overall and 7-14 in league play. Tomorrow the Vaqs play Moorpark’s Raiders at home at 2:30 p.m.
City College started off strong, scoring three runs in the first. Scott Cohen batted two home. Cuesta trailed by one run and the score held steady through the second.
In the third inning, Cuesta came from behind. The Vaqs kept up, but sluggish ball handling in right field let a Cuesta runner score. The Cuesta lineup kept hitting hard and deep, scoring a total of four runs off pitchers Mike Underwood and Sean Manning.
Cuesta’s defense kept the heat on through the next two innings, keeping the Vaqueros from getting a single runner home, scoring three runs during the Vaqs’ drought.
But the Vaqs came alive in the seventh inning, attempting a turnaround with skillful plays both on the mound and at the plate. Fans started to fill out the stands as City College pulled in six runs, closing the gap between teams.
Head coach Teddy Warrecker switched to a fresh pitcher in the seventh, after Cuesta scored a home run.
“We got a match up for you,” Warrecker called from near the dugout as he watched pitcher Koa Kaleo strike out Mike Murphy, one of Cuesta’s power hitters. Koa also moved quickly to pick off a Cuesta runner when he tried to steal second.
Both Matt Floyd and Dave Klein got on base as soon as the Vaqs were up to bat. Designated hitter John DeAlba sent both runners home with an out-of-the-park homerun.
“City came back,” said Kelley Pettigrew, member of the Vaquero softball team. She and teammate Linzy Aron had come to cheer the baseball team on.
“They’re doing really well,” said Aron. “They were down by five.”
But the Vaqueros couldn’t shake Cuesta’s lead – the Cougars scored one more run in the seventh and held their lead, defeating City College by two.
City College has just three games left before the end of the season.
