Back-to-Back-to-Back Homers Back Baseball's Win

It's something you might expect from the '27 Yankees or the Gashouse Gorillas of Bugs Bunny cartoon fame. What you may never see at spacious Brookside Park's Jackie Robinson Field are the back-to-back-to-back home runs delivered by the Pasadena City College baseball team on Tuesday. The power show highlighted a 16-5 victory over Citrus.

Leading off the bottom of the second inning, Toshiki Kuriya crushed a solo drive over the left-center fence, Patrick Garcia followed with blast over the right-center wall, and then Matt Rice hit the longest of the three with a bomb down the left field line that easily cleared the usually pitcher-friendly deep fence there. As far as PCC history, it is believed to be the first time that a Lancers team performed three consecutive home runs.

Citrus actually rallied to tie PCC with three runs in the top of the third, but the Lancers scored two in the bottom of the frame on a Garcia single, and added a six spot in the fourth to break the game open. 

Garcia, a designated hitter/pitcher, continues his own personal power surge in batting 3-for-4 with four RBI. He homered for the fourth time in six games, three of those at Brookside. His four dingers are tied for fifth in the state adn with two triples and a double his slugging percentage is 1.077, third best in California. His .423 batting average tops the team's regulars.

Kuriya, a third baseman, batted 3-for-5 and he took the Lancers RBI lead by driving in two to give him 13 while collecting his second homer of the season and third of his community college career. Rice, a platoon catcher who last year hit a memorable walk-off HR to beat East Los Angeles, hit his second career round-tripper.

"Judging by the way we've scratched for runs at times this season, it was an unexpected explosion by our offense," said PCC head coach Pat McGee. "It's something we can look back on as a memorable day, but it only gave us a brief lead at that point. We did a good job of swinging the bat and producing runs after that power exhibition."

In the second inning laser show, Josh Hernandez, playing centerfield to give starter Tommy Castillo a rest day, was the batter following Rice. He was plunked by Citrus lefty starter Kaj James. Hernandez would go on to reach base safely in all five of his at bats with two singles, two walks and the HBP. His 2-RBI hit to center highlighted the fourth-inning rally. 

First baseman Jake Trabbie hit a bases-clearing, 3-RBI double down the left field line in the sixth and finished 2-for-6. Rightfielder Jakob Guardado was 2-for-4 with two RBI and leftfielder Aryonis Harrison was 1-for-3, drawing three walks and stole two bases. 

Six-foot-8 sophomore pitcher Kyle Noell hurled a college career-best five innings, allowing five hits, one walk and struck out four to pick up the mound win. Ian Schenk, Ben Griffith and Damien Ureta combined for 2-2/3 innings of 1-hit scoreless relief to close the contest. 

"Kyle has been great for us," McGee said. "We've asked him to start the opening game for us each week and he's handled that job well. He stretched out v. Citrus and earned this win. We have a number of young, short relievers who are getting acclimated to this level. We are going to need our entire staff to step up when called on."

Toshiki Kuriya in his home run trot

Merced 12, Lancers 8

On Feb. 11 at Brookside, PCC had no answers to stop the hitting of Merced rightfielder Nate Silva, who knocked in eight RBI including two doubles and a first-inning, 3-run homer, to send the Lancers to the non-conference loss.

Third baseman Jaden Guzman took advantage of his start by going 4-for-5 with two doubles and two RBI to lead the Pasadena offense. Hernandez, playing left field, was 1-for-2 with two walks and a HBP while Trabbie was 1-for-3 as his body endured three hit-by-pitches. Catcher Matthew Delgado was 2-for-6, shortstop Jack Esguerra 1-for-3 with a walk and sacrifice fly, and both Castillo and second baseman Ivan Barragan hit doubles. 

Garcia pitched the final two innings, retiring all six batters he faced with three strikeouts. 

PCC next play a pair of home games v. West Los Angeles College on Thursday, Feb. 16 (2 p.m.) and Saturday, Feb. 18 (12 noon). 

Matt Rice's power swing