The MSJC baseball team continued their run through the Inland Empire Athletic Conference as they swept three games from Victor Valley last week.
The Eagles played all three games of the series in San Jacinto due to construction on the field in Victorville, they were designated as the visiting team on Tuesday and Friday.
Tuesday's game saw the Eagles get a big time pitching performance from Julian Castro as they shut out the Rams 9-0. Castro went 7 innings and allowed just 4 hits while striking out 6, he improved to 5-0 on the season with the win. Tanner Aoki, Christian Smith, and Dominick Lombardi each had 3 hits in the victory, while Smith, Nate Prinkey, and Steven Kirtides all drove in two runs a piece.
Thursday the Eagles used a four run 3rd inning to break open a close game and went on to win 11-2. Prinkey continued his hot hitting as he drove in a game high 4 runs on 3 hits. Adrian Vento added a pair of RBIs while Lombardi had two doubles and Juni Rodriguez added a triple. Evan Stratton earned the win on the mound going 6 innings as he allowed just one unearned run while striking out 6. Pierce Sailer threw 3 innings out of the bullpen and also allowed just one unearned run, he struck out 5.
In Friday's series finale, the Eagles trailed 2-1 until rallying for four runs in the top of the 7th. Victor Valley had a disastrous defensive inning in the 7th and MSJC pushed across 4 unearned runs to take the lead. Rodriguez and Austin Sargent both had an RBI sacrifice fly in the inning. Smith would add an RBI single in the 8th, and Dayton Thompson added an RBI in the 9th as the Eagles pulled out the 7-3 win. Joseph Romero threw 6 innings to earn the pitching victory as he allowed 3 runs. Marcos Cisneros and Ivan Salas threw two hitless innings of relief to lock down the win.
The Eagles improved to 23-5 overall on the season and 13-1 in IEAC games to set up a big series this week with Chaffey. MSJC will travel to Chaffey on Tuesday and Saturday and host the Panthers in San Jacinto Thursday. The Panthers will enter the series with an overall mark of 19-9, they are 13-2 in league games. Tuesday and Thursday's games are scheduled for 2 pm, while Saturday's first pitch will be at 1.