Thomas Baltazar pitched five innings of hitless relief, and the San Bernardino Valley College baseball team rallied from an early two-run deficit to knock off Compton College 4-2 Tuesday afternoon.
Compton opened the scoring with two outs in the first inning, after starting pitcher David Ozuna issued a pair of walks to Adrian Estrada and Michael Pagan. Julian Sansores followed with a single to right that scored Estrada from second, and Pagan was allowed to score when Chaz McWilliams' throw to third got away.
But that was it from Ozuna, who worked out of a jam in the third. After giving up leadoff single to Jose Romero, and a double to Estrada, the Tartars had runners on second and third with no outs. But Ozuna slammed the door shut on the Tartars, striking out the side to keep the score 2-0.
The killed rally helped spur the SBVC offense in the bottom half of the inning. Edward Aldama led off with a walk, but two outs later, he was still on first. But Patrick Perez and Gage Brandt both drew two-out walks to load the bases. Martin Sanchez came up and singled to left, scoring Aldama and Perez to tie the game.
The Wolverines took the lead in the bottom of the fifth. Derek Bogh drew a leadoff walk, and Perez followed with a single, chasing Compton starter Jose Gutierrez-Silva. After Brandt bunted the runners over, Sanchez was given a free pass to load the bases. Reliever Rafael Cortez got Ethan Anderegg to ground a ball to second baseman Jose Romero, who reached back to try and tag Sanchez as he ran by - but it was ruled he missed - then threw to first to get Anderegg. The missed tag allowed Bogh to score with the go-ahead run.
SBVC picked up an insurance run in the eighth. Sanchez led off by reaching on an error, then he stole second without a throw. Anderegg bunted him to third, then he scored on a sacrifice fly by Jason Valdivia.
Meanwhile, the SBVC pitchers were cruising. Baltazar replaced Ozuna to start the fifth, and he quieted the Tartars' bats. He walked one and struck out two over the final five innings for his first win of the year. Ozuna pitched four innings, striking out six in the starting role.