Guardado's Pitching, Back-to-Back HRs Returns Baseball To Win Column

Jakob Guardado pitched eight innings of 4-hit ball while Raider Tello and Toshiki Kuriya hit back-to-back home runs in the fifth inning as the Pasadena City College baseball team returned to the win column on Tuesday, shutting out visiting Cerritos, 6-0, in a South Coast Conference game.

The Lancers (27-11, 15-7 in SCC play) bounced back from being swept by new state #11-ranked El Camino last week. PCC dropped to #14 in the state rankings and fourth place in the SCC, but is looking forward to the postseason.

PCC head coach Pat McGee set a new high for victories in his tenure (since 2015) at 27 and matched the program's high for conference wins, now at 15. 

Guardado (4-3) and Kyle Noell (perfect ninth inning) combined for the pitching staff's fourth shutout of the season. The Lancers did not walk a batter for the sixth time this year and Guardado retired 13 in a row between the fourth and eighth innings. 

PCC scored the only run it would need in the second as rightfielder Kenny Kim lined a double, shortstop Isaac Luevano singled and leftfielder Aryonis Harrison roped a RBI single to right for a 1-0 lead. 

In the fifth, Pasadena scored five runs. Tello, the state's hit leader with 74, belted his team-best seventh home run over the left-center field fence to lead off the frame. Kuriya, the team's starting third baseman, followed with a majestic drive that landed within 10 feet of Tello's bomb for the Japanese international student's first collegiate dinger. Centerfielder Max Blessinger added a RBI single to cap the inning.

Tello is fifth in the state in batting with a .430 average, second in doubles with 18, and tied for fourth in RBI with his continuing school record now at 51. 

On Thursday, PCC continues its series at Cerritos and on Friday, the teams return to Brookside Park's Jackie Robinson Field for the conference and regular season finale. Both games have 2:30 p.m. first pitches.

Jakob Guardado fires a pitch