VICTORY OVER VIKES

The Hornets hosted Long Beach City College on Saturday afternoon for game one of a two-game series and sailed past the Vikings 8-2.

The non-conference win lifts Fullerton to 5-3 overall, while the LBCC loss evens the Vikings out to 4-4 overall.

Long Beach drew first blood in the first inning when Max Ghiglieri knocked a homer over the right field right field ivy for a two-run shot. That would be the only scoring the Vikings could muster as the FC pitching rotation held them to 6 hits.

Fullerton cut LBCC's lead in half in the bottom of the first when leadoff hitter Nate Pone came across on a wild pitch.

In the third, the Hornets took the lead on Dillon Anderson's hard-hit double to right center field plating Jacob Larson and Pone. The next batter, Trevor Schmidt, got in on the action hitting a SAC fly to deep center giving Anderson the chance to come home.

Jacob Larson made it 5-2 in the fifth doubling to left field scoring Pone. 

In the seventh, Fullerton took a 7-2 lead on Pone's shot that ripped through the left side scoring Luke Viola. Jake Starr got on from a fielder's choice and Pone scored again.

FC locked down an insurance run in the eighth when Diego Vazquez took advantage of a wild pitch to go home.

Nate Pone had a day at the plate going 4-4 with a RBI and 4 runs scored. 

Josh Porter got the nod as the starting pitcher for FC going 3 innings with 3 hits, 2 earned runs, 1 walk, and 1 strikeout. Eddie Garcia earned his first win throwing 2 innings of shutout baseball with no hits, runs, walks, and had 2 strikeouts. Joel Sanchez tossed an inning with 2 hits against, and Ashton McNaughton went 2 innings allowing only a hit and 2 walks, and a strikeout. Will Valenzuela came in to finish it off without allowing a hit, run, or walk.

Up Next: The Hornets (5-3 overall) will play game two of the series at Long Beach City College on Monday, February 10^th at 2:00 pm.