Hancock Rallies to Erase Six-Run Deficit, Tops Ventura 8-7

The Allan Hancock College baseball team overcame a 7-1 deficit to snap an eight-game conference losing skid and defeat Ventura 8-7 on Thursday afternoon. The Bulldogs improved to 4-9 in Western State Conference play and 7-15 overall. Ventura fell to 2-11 in league and 5-17 for the season. 

Left fielder Carver Tippett went three for three, while Zach Lampreia and Justin Daraban had two hits each for the Bulldogs. Riley Joyce, Daraban and Colby Barrick all finished with two RBI in the come-from-behind win. Barrick also drew three walks. Hancock outhit the Pirates 11 to seven and won despite committing four errors to the Pirates' zero.

The visiting Pirates scored once in the second and again in the fourth against Hancock starting pitcher Conner Loeppky. The Bulldogs got on the board in the bottom of the fourth when Daraban singled to drive in freshman Tim Mahoney to make it a 2-1 Ventura lead. The Pirates added a run in the fifth and scored four in the sixth. The four-run rally was aided by an error by Hancock relief pitcher Chance Miranda.

Hancock started their comeback in the sixth when Mahoney walked and Lampreia singled. Daraban delivered his second RBI-single of the game to plate Mahoney and make it a 7-2 game. After Tippett singled to load the bases, sophomore Angel Guillen singled with one out to drive in Lampreia and advance the runners 90 feet. Barrick drew a bases loaded walk to force in Daraban and make it a three-run game. Later in the inning, Joyce, a freshman catcher, came through with a two-out, two-run single to score Guillen, a Pioneer Valley High School graduate, and Tippett to bring the Bulldogs to within a single run.

Trailing 7-6 in the seventh, Hancock loaded the bases with two outs after Lampreia was hit by a pitch, Tippett singled and Spencer Armstrong drew a walk. Barrick singled home Lampreia, a Toronto native, with the tying run. With the bases still loaded, Colton Studebaker drew a walk to force in Tippett with what proved to be the game-winning run.

Sophomore reliever Matt Shackley earned the win with 3 2/3 innings of shutout relief. He allowed just one hit along the way and retired the Pirates in order in the eighth and ninth innings.

Loeppky, a freshman right hander, started for Hancock and allowed three runs, two of them earned, in five innings. He scattered five hits and struck out three. Miranda allowed one hit and walked one in 1/3 of an inning. The left-handed Righetti High School graduate allowed four runs, all of which were unearned.

Hancock plays at Ventura on Saturday at 1 p.m.  Three of the Bulldogs' four conference wins have come against the Pirates.