PCC starter Jesse Hanckel threw four no-hit innings to help the 18th-ranked Lancers to a 7-5 win Tuesday at Brookside Park, photo by Richard Quinton. Starting pitcher Jesse Hanckel and reliever Matthew McElligott combined for six innings of no-hit ball and closer John Mendoza wiggled out of a ninth-inning jam as the Pasadena City College […]
PCC starter Jesse Hanckel threw four no-hit innings to help the 18th-ranked Lancers to a 7-5 win Tuesday at Brookside Park, photo by Richard Quinton.
Starting pitcher Jesse Hanckel and reliever Matthew McElligott combined for six innings of no-hit ball and closer John Mendoza wiggled out of a ninth-inning jam as the Pasadena City College baseball team downed Victor Valley, 7-5, Tuesday at Brookside Park’s Jackie Robinson Memorial Field.
The Lancers, ranked No. 18 in the CCCBCA South Region Top 20 poll, improved to 8-4 while the Rams dropped to 7-9. Hanckel, a 6-foot-4 righthander and the starting quarterback on PCC’s 2016 football team, allowed three walks and struck out three in his four innings of work before giving way to McElligott (St. Francis High), who retired all six batters he faced with one K.
While PCC’s pitchers were holding VVC batters in check, so was Rams’ starter Josh Gooding, who only allowed one hit over the first five innings. Unfortunately for Gooding, the Lancers used two Victor Valley errors to score four runs and take eventually a 5-0 lead after six.
Victor Valley clawed back first by breaking up the no-no with a lead-off home run in the seventh by Kyle Callahan off PCC reliever Hugo Avendano. The Rams scored four runs in the eighth to tie it, 5-5, thanks in part to two Lancers’ throwing errors.
In the eighth, PCC grabbed the lead again when second baseman Andres Kim knocked in third baseman Jose Jimenez from second with a RBI single. Kim then plated the insurance run on a squeeze bunt and error by Victor Valley. Kim was 2-for-2, scored three runs, launched a booming ground-rule double in the sixth, stole two bases, drew a walk and dropped a successful sacrifice bunt.
Jimenez batted 2-for-3 while catcher Jessie Garcia was 1-for-2 with two RBI.
In the ninth, Mendoza allowed the first two runners on base on a single and walk but recovered for his second save by striking out the next two batters and then getting Joshua Burns to line out to Kim to end it. The Lancers fourth pitcher Nick Esparza got credit for his second win.
First baseman Jeremy Conant, an All-South Coast Conference First Team letterman, was second in the state in batting (.500) going into the game but went 0-for-4 that dropped him to seventh at a .457 average. The lefty-hitting Conant had a stretch last week where in 12 plate appearances he was a perfect 8-for-8 with two walks, a hit by pitch and a sacrifice fly (not charged for an at bat).
Coach Pat McGee’s Lancers begin South Coast Conference play on Thursday, Mar. 2 when they host El Camino College in a 2 p.m. contest.
