After Nathan Campos-Jaramillo pitched a complete game in Tuesday's series opener against Barstow College, the San Bernardino Valley College baseball team's pitching staff was going to have its work cut out to match that performance.
Justin Guzman struck out the first five batters he faced, en route to a nine-strikeout performance, as the Wolverines won their sixth straight game, knocking off the Vikings 9-6 Thursday afternoon.
Guzman left the game after five innings, having given up six hits and three runs (two earned), and four other pitchers combined to finish the victory. Jacob Castaneda struck out four of the seven batters he faced in 1 1/3 innings, and Jason Lopez got the final two outs - striking out pinch hitter Aidan Murphy for the final out - for his third save of the year.
SBVC jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Luis Martinez-Gomez led off with a walk, then one out later, went to third as Melchor Flores reached, then went to second on an error. Ignacio Zamora was hit by a pitch to load the bases, and then Martinez scored on a wild pitch. After Guillermo Velasco grounded out, Alec Castillo had the first hit of the inning, lining a single to left-center to score Flores and Zamora.
The Wolverines scored three more times in the fourth to open a 7-0 lead. Alexander Jurado had a ball hit off the knob of his bat in front of the plate, and he beat the throw to first for an infield single, and he went to second on an errant throw. He moved to third on a wild pitch, and scored on Parker Pund's single. After a Ryan Callanan fly out, Pund stole second, then scored one batter later on a single from Edward Aldama - who advanced to second on the throw home. Flores singled home Aldama to make it 7-0.
Barstow scored three times in the fifth, but the Wolverines were able to mitigate big innings, leading to the victory.
Aldama finished the game 2-for-4 with three runs scored and an RBI. Flores was also 2-for-4, including a double, two runs and an RBI. Jaramillo, who came in to DH in the fourth, was 2-for-2 with an RBI, and Alec Castillo finished 1-for-2 with three runs batted in.
The two teams will finish the series Saturday at Barstow.