Pitching Stands Out In Baseball's Citrus Win

Pasadena City College's pitching staff is showing signs of encouragement lately after a 10-4 road victory at Citrus on Saturday.

The Lancers (5-3 overall) had combined solid efforts from starter Connor Campbell (four innings, four hits, two runs, six strikeouts), winning pitcher and reliever Aiden Nunez (three innings of 1-hit shutout ball) and reliever Matt Garcia (final two innings). 

Nunez (2-0) lowered his ERA to 0.82, allowing just nine hits in 11 innings this season with 11 Ks. Garcia has a 2.89 ERA in four appearances and 9.1 innings. Meanwhile, Campbell has been outstanding after a rough opening day start as his line in his past three starts (all PCC victories) are 18.1 innings, nine earned runs, four walks, and 17 strikeouts. The sophomore has a complete-game win over pre-season SoCal #2 rated Santa Ana.

In the team's 8-7 loss at Victor Valley on Feb. 11, Hugo Tafoya delivered a positive start as he hurled five frames, allowed only three hits, one earned run and striking out four. Nunez pitched two shutout innings in that contest.

Against Citrus, PCC scored five runs in the second highlighted by a 2-RBI single by Carlos Hernandez. In the fourth, Adrian Roman stroked a 2-run single to center. Rocco Regan (double, two RBI), sixth batter Devin Munoz (double), seventh hitter Omar Cisneros, eighth batter Isaac Ton, and ninth swinger Tyler Garcia each had two hits. The bottom four in the order were a combined 8-for-15 with seven runs scored. 

In the VVC defeat, Pasadena squandered a 7-0 lead after three innings. The Rams won it on a walk-off in the ninth on a 2-run basehit by Aiden Caporale. Cisneros was 3-for-4, Brandon Gill hit 2-for-4 with two RBI as did Evan Nahra, Joaquin Salcedo went 2-for-4, and Regan 2-for-5 with a double. 

PCC is batting .350 as a team through eight games while averaging 9.75 runs per contest. The team has collected double-digits in hits in seven consecutive games.

Salcedo leads the regulars in batting (.444, two home runs, nine RBI), Gill is the team's RBI leader with 13 (.379 average, one HR), and Bryan Richman (.300) tops the Lancers in runs scored (13) and walks (10). 

Coach Pat McGee's squad begins its 24-game, South Coast Conference schedule next week, beginning with a 3-game series v. Rio Hondo College. PCC plays at the Roadrunners on Tuesday, Feb. 18.

Due to a continuing situation in trying to get access to the team's off-campus home diamong at Brookside Park's Jackie Robinson Field, the Lancers will find out if they can play their last two games on Feb. 20 and 22 there. Check the PCC website on the team's Schedule/Results page for the latest update for game locations.