COLLEGE BASEBALL ROUNDUP : Pierce Falls Into Tie for WSC Lead After 3rd Consecutive Loss, 8-2

The Pierce College baseball team moved north Thursday, but even a change of venue did nothing to help snap the team out of its recent funk.

Pierce fell, 8-2, to host Bakersfield in a Western State Conference game, marking the Brahmas’ third consecutive defeat.

Pierce (21-6, 13-4 in conference play) managed 12 hits--all singles--but hit into two double plays and stranded nine runners.

With three games left in conference play, Pierce and Ventura are tied for the WSC lead at 13-4.

“Today at least gave us a glimmer of hope,” Pierce Coach Bob Lofrano said of the 12 hits. “But there has to be more hope than that to do the job.”

Erik Martinez and Robby Welles each had three hits for Pierce, and teammate Ricky Banuelos added two.

Taft High graduate Chris Brown (5-3) took the loss for Pierce, which will play host to Canyons on Saturday at 1 p.m.

Bakersfield is 11-6 in conference play.

Oxnard 6, Valley 3--Freshman right-hander Julio Gonzales (1-2) struck out two en route to his first complete game.

Adrian Estrada, Al Anaya and Steve Susko each had run-scoring singles for host Oxnard (4-21, 4-13) in the WSC game.

Santa Barbara 6, Canyons 4--Santa Barbara scored four runs in the seventh inning of the WSC game at Canyons.

Reliever Doug Maggiora (1-1), who surrendered the fourth run of the inning, was tagged with the loss.

Mike Kerber hit a solo home run in the second inning for Canyons (13-16, 10-8).

Mission 9, East L.A. 4--Eric Duncan gave up four runs on nine hits and Dereck Ornelas hit his first home run as host Mission (10-12-2, 6-6-1) won a Southern California Conference game. Mission, which had 14 hits, is 5-0-1 in its past six games.

Ornelas, who hit a two-run home run in the seventh, had two hits and three runs batted in. Mike Rogers also had two hits and two RBIs.