Hancock Baseball Ends Season with 4-3 Walk-Off Win Over Cuesta as Harmonay Delivers

Josh Harmonay delivered a game-winning walk-off hit in the bottom of the tenth inning to lift the Allan Hancock College baseball team to a 4-3, 10-inning win over Cuesta College to close out the 2017 season on Thursday afternoon. The Bulldogs finished the season 9-11 in Western State Conference play and 16-23 overall. The Cougars fell to 18-21 on the year and 11-8 in league.

Sophomore pitcher Walker Armstrong went the distance for Hancock. The right-hander allowed 11 hits and three runs over 10 innings. He walked five and struck out five. Armstrong improved to 8-5 on the season with a 2.15 ERA.

Aidan Nagle hit a solo-home run in the first inning off Armstrong to give Cuesta an early 1-0 lead. The Cougars rallied again in the second adding runs on a RBI-single and a hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded. After allowing three runs in the first two innings, Armstrong threw eight shutout innings the rest of the way.

The Bulldogs cut into the deficit in the fifth when Chris Taitague led off with a single and moved to third on an errant throw by the Cuesta pitcher. Taitague came around to score on a RBI-grounder off the bat of Daniel Curiel to make it a 3-1 game. 

Hancock tied it in the seventh inning when Taitague was hit by a pitch and Curiel followed with a double. Kyle von Tillow reached on an infield single to lOad the bases. Ryan Peinado followed with a two-run single to tie it at 3-3. Cuesta left the bases loaded in the ninth and stranded two more in the tenth against Armstrong.

In the bottom half of the tenth, Quinntin Perez stroked a one-out double. Brandon Davis entered as a pinch runner for Perez. After Wyatt Coll walked, Harmonay stepped up and ended it with a base hit.

Hancock finished with eight hits, two apiece from von Tillow and Peinado. The Bulldogs struck out 11 times against three Cuesta pitcher. The Cougars' Cody Luther fanned eight in the first six innings.