The Pasadena City College baseball team has left a 3-game losing streak in the rearview mirror with victories over West Los Angeles, 11-6, on Saturday and against Mt. San Jacinto, 8-3, on Tuesday in an inclement weather-shortened game. A winter-like hail storm quickly blanketed Brookside Park's Jackie Robinson Field, ending the contest after 6-1/2 innings.
The Lancers improved to 6-3. The team has rode the hot bat and slick fielding of shortstop Raider Tello, who is hitting .457 with five doubles, a triple, a home run and 13 RBI overall. Another leader is leadoff batter and centerfielder Max Blessinger, who is hitting .382 with 15 runs scored and four stolen bases plus an outstanding .522 on-base percentage.
In the Mt. San Jacinto win, Tello hit a RBI single as part of a 4-run, Lancers' fifth inning. Tello singled in another run and Blessinger hit a sacrifice fly that extended PCC's lead to 8-0 in the sixth. Tello, designated hitter Kenny Kim (a RBI double to score Blessinger in the first), leftfielder Aryonis Harrison and second baseman Andrew Scannell each collected two hits. Tello extended his hitting streak to eight games and Blessinger (1-for-2) upped his streak to six games hitting safely.
Righthander Jakob Guardado hurled five shutout innings, allowing just three hits and two walks while striking out seven for the mound victory. The freshman struck out the side in the third inning.
At WLAC on Feb. 12, PCC jumped out to a 10-0 lead after six innings and withstood a 6-run rally by the Wildcats in the seventh. Kim batted 2-for-5 with a triple and three RBI, Scannell was 2-for-5 with a triple and two RBI, and Blessinger went 2-for-5. Leftfielder Damien Ureta led a 12-hit Lancers attack by going 3-for-5 and the lefty-hitting Guardado, playing right field, scored three times and added a double (1-for-4).
Casey Popham (2-1) was the first of six Lancers pitchers and picked up the win-by-committee with three innings of 2-hit scoreless ball and three Ks. Both Kyle Noell and Coleman Mitchell fired two innings of 1-hit shutout ball while Rider Gardner and Hayden Zweig threw a scoreless inning each.
The Lancers host West LA on Thursday, Feb. 17 in a 2 p.m. first pitch.