Hancock Baseball Beats Moorpark 4-3 on Ackerman's Walk-Off Hit

Freshman catcher Nash Ackerman ripped a two-out, walk-off single to drive home Brandon Davis and give the Allan Hancock College baseball team a dramatic 4-3 win over Moorpark College on Friday. Hancock improved to 7-10 in Western State Conference play and 15-22 overall. Moorpark fell to 9-8 in league and 17-20.

Ackerman, Walker Armstrong, and Wyatt Coll had three hits apiece to lead Hancock's 13-hit attack. Ackerman went 3-for-3 with 1 RBI and one walk. Armstrong went 3-for-5 and earned the win with 2 2/3 innings of relief. The sophomore struck out one, allowed one hit and walked two hitters. Coll went 3-for-4 with a RBI. Dylan Maiden added two hits.

The Bulldogs got on the board first. Quinntin Perez and Coll singled back-to-back to open the bottom of the first inning. Perez came home on a fielder's choice off the bat of Dylan Maiden with the game's first run. Moorpark tied it with a run in the third against Hancock starting pitcher Will Dowell. The Bulldogs answered right back in the home half as Coll tripled and scored on a RBI-single off the bat of Maiden to make it 2-1 Bulldogs.

Hancock added to its lead in the sixth as Coll's third hit of the game, a two-out single, allowed Ackerman to score to push the Bulldogs' lead to 3-1.

Dowell got into trouble in the seventh when he hit two batters and walked another to load the bases with one out. Armstrong came into the game in relief and uncorked a wild pitch to allow one run to score. He coaxed a ground-ball fielder's choice that allowed the tying run to score. However, the sophomore got out of the jam with no further damage.

The game remained tied until the ninth when Armstrong led off with a single. Chad Jones laid down a bunt, but the Raiders threw to second to force out Armstrong. Brandon Davis pinch-ran for Jones and moved to second on a ground ball from Chris Taitague to set the stage for Ackerman.

Dowell earned a no-decision despite a solid 6 1/3 innings. He allowed four hits, three runs and struck out two.

Hancock will conclude its stretch of four games in five days on Saturday at Ventura. First pitch will be at 1 p.m.