Baseball Offense Slows, Win Streak Snapped

The Pasadena City College baseball team saw its 6-game winning streak snapped on Tuesday by host LA Mission, 7-4, and then Merced shut down the Lancers bats, 5-0, on Thursday morning at Jackie Robinson Memorial Field at Brookside Park. 

PCC (6-2) received yet another brilliant start from freshman Paul McAllister, who hurled 6.2 innings of 5-hit shutout ball and struck out seven. But Merced's starter Kelby Grissom surrendered just three hits over six innings followed by three more scoreless innings from reliever and winning pitcher Nate McGhee, who gave up only one hit. 

Merced broke the 0-0 duel in the eighth inning but only after a great defensive play almost got the Lancers out of the inning. Shortstop Alex Briggs took a relay from center following a double and fired a one-hop strike to cut down a Merced runner at home plate to keep it scoreless. With two outs, the next hitter reached on first baseman Jeremy Conant's error to load the bases. The Blue Devils finally cashed on back-to-back RBI singles from Coleton Horner and Josh May off losing pitcher Chris Brown. Nico Martinez made a diving catch in right field to keep Merced's lead at 2-0.

Merced tacked on three more runs in the ninth. Third baseman Andres Kim had half of PCC's hits in going 2-for-4.

Against LA Mission, Alex Devito slugged a grand slam to put the Lancers behind 4-1 in the third inning. PCC tried to rally as Conant belted a solo home run over the centerfield fence in the sixth and leftfielder Tanner Whitlock executed a RBI safety squeeze bunt to close the gap to 4-3. LA Mission responded with two insurance runs in the seventh to put the game away.

Overall, Conant, Martinez and catcher Jessie Garcia each had two hits. Race Gardner took the loss, allowing four hits and walking three in five innings of work. 

Coach Pat McGee's Lancers will next play on Tuesday, Feb. 21 when it hosts Cerro Coso in a 2 p.m. start.