Homers, Walks Carry Baseball's Rout At LA Harbor

In the bottom of the third inning in the Pasadena City College baseball team's game at Los Angeles Harbor on Tuesday, centerfielder Tommy Castillo faced a 3-2 count and looked to complete an unlikely team statistical accomplishment. All eight of the Lancers starters had already drawn walks, and Castillo would have been the ninth except an errant pitch by Harbor reliever Gabriel Olguin plunked the sophomore in the shoulder resulting in a hit-by-pitch and RBI. 

While Castillo never did draw a walk, he instead hit a perfect 5-for-5 and stroked one of three home runs hit by the Lancers as the team also accepted a season-high 15 walks in a wild 18-7, South Coast Conference victory. PCC's 20th win of the season extended PCC head coach Pat McGee's streak of 20-win seasons, now at five in a row for full seasons (2017-2019, 2022-2023). 

The Lancers (20-15 overall) moved into a fourth-place tie in the SCC with Long Beach City, both now 12-7. PCC is just a game back of second place, occupied by both Rio Hondo and East Los Angeles, each at 13-6. Despite winning the season series v. El Camino, it's the Warriors who lead the conference at 15-4. 

PCC stopped a season worst, 4-game losing streak overall, but all four were highly competitive, non-conference games against SoCal #1 Palomar, 8-3, on April 8, twice against #9 Allan Hancock, 7-5 in 10 innings on April 11 and 5-4 on April 13, and #16 Chaffey, 7-4, on April 14. The Lancers are #20 in the region ratings. There is no official state poll this season.

Castillo singled to shortstop twice in the second and third innings, belted his fourth home run, a solo blast off the scoreboard in left field (his fourth of the year), in the fifth, lined a RBI single to right in the seventh, and smashed a RBI single to center in the eighth. He reached base on all six of his plate appearances. 

In what has to be a PCC single-game first, the tandem of first baseman Jake Trabbie and third baseman Toshiki Kuriya each homered and drew three walks each. Trabbie launched his second dinger, a 3-run shot to left center in the second inning. Kuriya batted 2-for-3 overalll, drew three walks, and hit a tape-measure bomb well over the scoreboard, landing near the parking lot beyond the stadium. It was the Japanese sensation's fifth round-tripper. 

PCC jumped out to a 12-1 lead with five runs in the second and seven more in the third. Leftfielder Aryonis Harrison, who once again made a diving catch on a fly ball in foul territory in the seventh, opened the game's scoring with a 2-RBI double down the first base line.

In the walkathon third, designated hitter Jakob Guardado, rightfielder Damien Ureta and second baseman Amaris Harrison all picked up RBI on bases-loaded walks in the third along with Castillo's HBP for a run. Harbor pitchers handed out seven free passes in the inning. 

The last-place Seahawks (9-28, 4-18 in SCC) mounted a comeback with a fourth-inning, 3-run HR by Cade Barger and a 2-run jack by Troy Harding in the fifth. Harbor knocked out starter Kyle Noell, slicing the lead to 13-7. PCC's offense responded with five runs over the next three innings to put the game out of reach. 

On the roll coll after Castillo (four RBI), Trabbie was 1-for-3 with four RBI (reached base four times), Kuriya 2-for-3 in reaching base five times, shortstop Jack Esguerra was 2-for-4, a double, two walks and two RBI, Aryonis Harrison 1-for-3, three walks, two RBI, and Ureta 2-for-5 with two ribbies. 

PCC scored 18 of its 31 baserunners, including 15 hits, as six LAHC pitchers totaled 228 pitches, but a staggering 117 for balls. 

Meanwhile, reliever Ben Griffith (2-1) earned the mound victory with his longest and best performance of 2023 in hurling four innings of 2-hit, shutout ball. Lefty Ian Schenk threw an impressive scoreless ninth by recording all three outs on strikeouts sandwiching two hits. 

PCC's power numbers are unprecedented under McGee since he took over the program before the 2015 season. The Lancers have hit 22 home runs, four more than the previous McGee team high of 18 slugged last season. Designated hitter Patrick Garcia leads the pack with six dingers while eight different players have gone deep overall. It's the most homers by a PCC team since the 1999 squad bombed 33 homers, 10 each by Kenny Okamura and Frankie Contreras. Only seven different players went yard on that squad. 

Trabbie took over the RBI lead in the SCC with 42 while continuing to top the league in doubles with 18 (tied for third in triples with four). Kuriya is second in the conference in on-base percentage with a .490 mark. In 19 conference games only, Trabbie is a MVP candidate as he is second in batting average (.405), tied for second in triples (three), third in slugging percentage (.671), and tops the South Coast in hits (32), doubles (12), and RBI (25). Defensively, he is a bonafide gold glove candidate who has a .990 fielding percentage in 303 chances this season. 

At Palomar, catcher Matthew Delgado and Esguerra each had two hits. PCC trailed just 4-3 before the Comets posted four runs in the eighth. 

In the extra-inning defeat v. AHC at Brookside Park, the Lancers tied it at 5-5 when Esguerra scored on a wild pitch in the seventh. In the 10th, the Bulldogs Brayan Nunez belted a 2-run HR for the decisive blow. Catcher Matt Rice hit a 2-RBI double in the sixth as a lone hitting highlight.

In the second defeat at Hancock, Guardado launched a 2-run homer for a 3-2 Lancers lead in the sixth. Kuriya's RBI single up the middle gave Pasadena 4-3 lead in the ninth. An error led to both Hancock's runs as Gavin Long hit a walk-off, sacrifice fly to end it.

The Mitchell brothers pitched the whole way with younger brother Tyler Mitchell starting with 2.1 innings (four hits, two runs) and older sibling Coleman Mitchell taking the hard-luck defeat despite 6.1 innings of 6-hit ball and just one earned run. Aryonis Harrison and Trabbie had 2-hit games. 

Against Chaffey, Kuriya batted 3-for-4 with two RBI, Trabbie 2-for-5 with a triple, and Aryonis Harrison 2-for-3 and two stolen bases. In the ninth, PCC loaded the bases on singles by Harrison, Trabbie, and Rice, but Panthers reliever Brock Mayer got Guardado to ground out to him to close their win.