Hancock Falls 4-3 to First Place Oxnard

The Bulldogs battled and fought back, but dropped a 4-3 conference game to first place Oxnard on Tuesday afternoon at John Osborne Field. The Allan Hancock College baseball team fell to 3-5 in Western State Conference play and 5-11 overall. The first place Condors, who are ranked fifth in the latest Southern California Regional Coaches Poll, improved to 5-1 in conference and 10-2-1 on the season.

Hancock scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the first inning when freshman right fielder Colby Barrick was hit by a pitch. He moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from Colton Studebaker and to third on a ball off the bat of Hunter Christensen misplayed by the Oxnard third baseman. With two outs, Barrick stole third and eventually scored on a wild pitch to give Hancock an early 1-0 lead.

Oxnard responded with three runs in the second against Hancock starter Elijah Ortiz. With the bases loaded and no outs, Tyson Quolas hit a RBI-single to tie it at 1-1. The next two batters hit sacrifice flies to give Oxnard a 3-1 advantage. The Condors added another run in the sixth against reliever Diego Rodriguez. The Bulldogs cut the deficit to one in the bottom half. Shortstop Ellis Gerussi-Turner doubled and moved to third on a grounder to second by Tim Mahoney. With two outs, Angel Guillen reached on an error by the third baseman allowing Gerussi-Turner to score from third to make it 4-2. Riley Joyce and Isaiah Ramos drew two-out walks to load the bases. Oxnard reliever Kyle Villa uncorked a wild pitch allowing Guillen to score to make it 4-3. With two runners in scoring position, Barrick struck out to end the threat.

Hancock threatened again in the seventh with two runners on, and had the tying runner at second and the go-ahead runner at first in the bottom of the ninth but could not deliver a clutch two-out hit.

Ortiz took the loss for Hancock to fall to 1-3. He allowed three hits, two walks and three runs in two-plus innings. Rodriguez allowed one run and third hits in three innings of relief. He struck out two and walked two. Chance Miranda threw 2 1/3 innings of shutout relief with one punchout. The freshman left-hander allowed four hits. Matt Shackley threw 1 1/3 innings of shutout relief for the Bulldogs.

Hancock collected seven hits, while Oxnard had 11. Gerussi-Turner and Zach Lampreia had two hits apiece for the Bulldogs. Mahoney, Ramos and Christensen each had one single.

The Bulldogs travel to West Hills Coalinga on Friday, March 6, for a 2 p.m. game.