With an emphatic win in their home opener, the LBCC Vikings handed Santa Ana, ranked no. 1 in Southern California, their first loss of the season.  Sophomore first baseman Brian Loard smashed a pair of homeruns and the Vikings rallied for six runs in the bottom of the third inning to defeat visiting Santa Ana 8-1 in their home opener at Joe Hicks Memorial Field on Tuesday.  The win improved Long Beach to 3-3 overall while Santa Ana dropped to 3-1.

With two outs in the bottom of third, the Vikings strung together five consecutive singles to bring in four runs. Hector Iribe, Trevor Costin (2 RBI), and Jonathan Keener all had run-scoring singles.  Loard (2 for 4, 3 RBI) capped the rally with a two-run blast over the leftfield fence to give Long Beach a 6-0 lead and chase Santa Ana starter Nicholas Perez from the game.

Loard added a solo homerun in the fifth and sophomore Matt Homstad drove in another with his groundout in sixth to account for LBCC’s final runs.  Freshman Blake Golding earned the win for Long Beach to move his record to 1-0. Golding scattered three hits and allowed no runs over five innings and struck six batters.

Perez (0-1) was credited with the loss for Santa Ana, allowing six runs and six hits in just 2 2/3 innings. Jacob Migliaccio went 2 for 5 at the plate to lead the Dons.  Long Beach returns to action on Wednesday (Feb. 4) when it hosts Orange Coast College in a 2 p.m. non-conference game.

From LBCC reports