The Pierce College baseball team won two games in a row against Allan Hancock College, defeating them at Hancock and at home.
Before facing Hancock in back-to-back games, Pierce lost its second game 9-4 against Moorpark College at Moorpark on Saturday, Feb. 21.
In the first of two games against Hancock, Pierce sophomore right-handed pitcher Matt Rowe went six and two-thirds innings where he held the Bulldogs to one run on Tuesday, Feb. 24.
Hancock went on a late-inning tear and scored four more runs, but freshman pitcher Bret Weisberg closed the game and Pierce won 6-5.
In the home game, the Bulls had a game-changing inning where they scored four of their five runs, defeating Hancock 5-4 on Thursday, Feb. 26.
The Bulls were able to keep the Bulldogs from outscoring them with the help of freshman left-handed starting pitcher Derek Galvin, who went 5.1 innings and got his second win of the season.
“I’m trying to be more aggressive and not really mess around anymore,” Galvin said. “I’m just trying to really attack the strikes and let them hit my stuff and it seems to be working out for me.”
Along with pitching, the Bulls’ defense was another key to the victory. The defense did not commit any errors, and with a well-communicated infield Pierce executed a ground ball double play at the top of the first inning.
“When we went on that little losing streak we weren’t playing good defense,” said sophomore outfielder Casey Ryan. “Our middle infield is incredible, corners are incredible, outfield is doing a great job and we’re just putting it together as a team. It’s working.”
Pierce head coach Bill Picketts agreed that his team’s defense had a good game.
“When we first started, I thought that defense was one of our strengths,” Picketts said.
At the top of the eighth, Bulldogs’ freshman catcher Tim Mahoney hit an RBI double. Two at bats later, sophomore second baseman Angel Guillen hit another RBI double to bring the deficit down to one.
“When we get ahead in games we relax and we need to do a better job at stepping on the throat and finishing them off when they’re down,” Ryan said.
The Bulls were able to “step on their throat” and come away with the victory.
“Even when we were losing the six in a row they all had wonderful attitudes and kept going to practice and getting work done,” Picketts said. “These last four games we have been playing better and just happened to get wins out of it.”
The Bulls are now 6-9 and will head toward the beach on Saturday, Feb. 28 to play Ventura College at 1 p.m.