Pasadena City College Baseball Team Went Pitching / Hitting Up And Down

In two non-conference games so far this week, the Pasadena City College baseball team went from no pitching, good hitting to good pitching, no hitting. The results were a 17-8 slugfest loss to Ventura on Tuesday and Wednesday’s 4-1 defeat v. Glendale. Both contests were played at Jackie Robinson Memorial Field at Brookside Park.

Against Glendale, PCC starting pitcher Anthony Mizrahi (1-3) pitched six strong innings, allowing just five hits, two runs and striking out four. Meanwhile, five Vaqueros pitchers limited the Lancers bats to six hits overall. Pasadena broke up a shutout in the ninth on a RBI double by pinch hitter Sean Fassler.

Glendale got insurance runs in the eighth on a 2-run homer over the left-centerfield fence by slugger Troy Mulcahey. For PCC, centerfielder Jacob Navarro and first baseman Jeremy Conant each had two hits.

In the Ventura game, PCC dug a hole for itself early as the Pirates scored five runs in the first and added four more in the second for a 9-0 lead. Ventura torched Lancers’ pitching for 20 hits overall.

The Lancers (7-13 overall) collected 15 hits as shortstop Alex Briggs batted 3-for-5 including a double. Third baseman Mitch Bryan (2-for-5) drove in three runs and second baseman Paul Christian (3-for-5) scored three runs. Reserve catcher Junior Fregoso was 2-for-4 with two RBI while the consistent lefty bat of Conant delivered two more hits.

For Ventura, third baseman Tony Fonzo put on a clinic with two home runs as he went 3-for-3 with six RBI.

After 20 games in an update of PCC’s team leaders, Conant tops the Lancers in batting with a .389 average, first baseman Joe Quire is next at .366. Mizrahi has a 2.86 ERA to lead the staff with 29 strikeouts in a team-high 28.1 innings pitched. Bryan has been one of the team’s better infielders since becoming a starter in the last month. He has no errors in 40 chances and has started four double plays.

As a team, the Lancers are batting .290, dropping to 25th in the state after being one of the state’s hottest hitting teams in the early season. PCC is averaging 6.4 runs per game and already has more runs scored (128) than it had all of last season in 36 games (122).

PCC hosts Taft on Friday, Mar. 25 in a 1 p.m. early afternoon start.