Crook ties Hicks with 513 wins

Crook ties Hicks at 513 career wins
with 13-1 Long Beach victory over L.A. Mission

Long Beach City College Baseball head coach Casey Crook is just one win away from becoming the college's all-time career leader as he is tied with LBCC legend Joe Hicks at 513 thanks to today's 13-1 Vikings' victory over visiting Los Angeles Mission College at Joe Hicks Memorial Field.

Crook will get his first chance to surpass Hicks on Tuesday (Feb. 16) when the Vikings host Oxnard College in a 2 p.m. non-conference game.

Long Beach, winners of three straight, pounded out 14 hits in today's victory over the Eagles. The LBCC offense has been on fire as of late. Over their last four games, the Vikings (4-3) have totaled 41 runs and 58 hits.

LBCC wasted little time in greeting L.A. Mission starting pitcher Ben Kaser. Freshman Gavin Windes (St. John Bosco HS) smacked a two-run double deep to the gap in right-center field before sophomore Jackson Foss (Wilson HS) smash a two-run home run to give LBCC an early 4-0 lead in the first.

It was more of the same in the second as freshman Steven Nuno (Warren HS) nailed a two-run double to the left-center gap before Windes got his third RBI of the game with a single.

The Vikings made it 10-0 in the fifth thanks to a a two-run single by Nuno and an infield single by sophomore Tai Tiedemann (Poly HS). LBCC closed out it scoring in the sixth after a run-scoring groundout by sophomore Connor Steer (Millikan HS), a passed ball, and a two-out error.

Tiedemann made his first start of the season and was impressive. He went five innings, allowed just one hit and struck out six to pick up the victory.

In relief, freshman Kyle Castillo (Seattle, WA/Chief Sealth HS) tossed two scoreless innings, sophomore Erickson Fish (Sitka, AK/Sitka HS) allowed an unearned run in the eighth, and freshman Jacob Zinger (Poly HS) closed out the win with a perfect ninth inning.

Kaser took the loss for L.A. Mission (2-6) after allowing nine runs and nine hits over 4 2/3 innings.