Baseball: Pasadena, El Camino, Long Beach Making SCC Title Runs Down Stretch
Pasadena City College has the lead in the South Coast Conference North Division baseball race while El Camino holds an advantage over Long Beach City as they vie for the SCC South championship. All three colleges are on this week's CCCSIA State Top Rankings with El Camino at #5, Pasadena #14, and Long Beach at #15.
The April 2 coaches association South ratings have ECC at No. 3, PCC at No. 6 and LBCC at No. 8. Chaffey comes in at No. 15 and Mt. San Antonio stands at No. 18.
Pasadena gave itself breathing room on Tuesday when it routed host Mt. SAC, 17-4. The Lancers (20-9) are 12-6 to top the North and are two games ahead in the win column over the Mounties (16-16, 10-7) and Chaffey (20-12, 10-8) with four games left in the conference season. The Lancers are looking for their second North title in three seasons, winning the division in 2017. PCC holds the tiebreaker already over Chaffey (3-0) and can do the same to Mt. SAC if it should win their contest on April 11 at Pasadena's off-campus diamond--Brookside Park's Jackie Robinson Memorial Field.
El Camino (26-5 overall) is 14-4 in SCC play, but only a half-game ahead of the oncoming Vikings (20-12, 13-4). The Warriors hold any tiebreaker over LBCC after winning their head-to-head series last week, 2-games-1. Both teams last won the South crown in 2017 as co-champions. El Camino hasn't won the title outright since 2010 when the conference was one 8-team league while Long Beach had won the last two outright titles in the conference in 2015 and 2016. The Vikings were a part of the last 3-way tie for a title (with Cerritos and East Los Angeles) in 2014.
Long Beach swept four consecutive SCC series during a 10-game overall win streak in the month of March.
Milestone
Long Beach head coach Casey Crook collected his 600th career victory in a 12-0 win v. Mt. SAC on March 29.
Awards
Pasadena pitcher Gordon Ingebritson earned the SoCal Pitcher of the Week on March 28 after he 1-hit Chaffey and earned a 1-out save earlier in the series.
Chaffey rightfielder Matthew Shea picked up SoCal Player of the Week on April 4 after batting .600 in the previous week series v. ELAC.
Monster Performance
On Tuesday, April 9, PCC rightfielder Frank Yokas had a game for the ages. He batted 5-for-5 with five runs scored, five RBI, in hitting for the cycle. Yokas hit 2 home runs in the game. He reached the cycle on a lead-off double in the ninth and then hit a 3-run HR later in the inning to cap a game in which he set a Lancers record for most total bases with 14.
Selected Top State/SCC Performers
El Camino continues to lead the state in team pitching ERA at 1.97. Aaron Orozco is tied for third in the state in wins with 8.
ECC's Spencer Long and Long Beach's Trevor Sutt are tied for third in the state in saves with 7 each.
PCC is third in the state team batting with a .316 average. Lancers centerfielder Gabriel Arellano is tied for second in the state in total hits with 54.
Arellano's .380 batting average is tied with teammate/catcher Cole Pilar for highest among all SCC batters. Long Beach second baseman Raul Gonzalez and Compton shortstop Shomo Yoshida were leading the SCC South, both at .370.
Chaffey DH Jacob Martin is seventh in the state in on-base percantage (.522), followed in a row by El Camino first baseman Spencer Palmer (.517) and PCC third baseman Marco Martinez (.514).
Mt. SAC rightfielder Dylan Zavala is tied for second in the state in triples with 7.
PCC's Martinez is fourth in the state in walks drawn with 28.