The Long Beach City College baseball team rallied late and held on for a big 4-3 South Coast Conference win at rival Cerritos College on Tuesday to wrap up at least a share of the SCC championship and earn an automatic bid into the postseason.

The Vikings close the conference schedule with a 17-7 record and are 26-16 overall with one non-conference game on Thursday left to play.

For head coach Casey Crook, it is his second conference title overall and first since the Vikings’ state championship 2006 season.

Long Beach can take the SCC championship outright as El Camino (15-7 SCC) still must play a pair of games on Thursday and Friday against L.A. Harbor College. A loss in either of those contests by El Camino would give the Vikings sole possession of the title.

Regardless, Long Beach will earn the SCC’s automatic spot into the Southern California regional playoffs because of the head-to-head tiebreaker against El Camino. The Vikings will host a first-round three-game series against an opponent to be determined on May 8-9 at Joe Hicks Memorial Field. Playoff pairings will be announced on Sunday.

On Tuesday, LBCC trailed 2-0 after six innings before rallying for the win. Designated hitter Ivan Niebla tied up the game with a two-run triple and then came in to score on a throwing error to give the Vikings a 3-2 lead.

Left fielder Matt Homstad added a big insurance run in the eighth when he singled, stole second, went to third on a sacrifice bunt, and came in to score on shortstop Hector Iribe’s ground out.

LBCC starter Chris Mieszala allowed a ninth-inning solo homerun to the Falcons’ Josh Bryan before settling down to get the complete-game win. Mieszala allowed three runs and seven hits and struck out 10 to improve to 4-2 overall.

The Vikings close out the regular-season schedule on Thursday (Apr 30) at 2:30 p.m. with a non-conference game against Mt. San Jacinto College.

Report by LBCC’s Chris Ruiz