No. 22 Warriors Complete Sweep at Long Beach, Clinch Third Place

LONG BEACH, Calif. --- No. 22 El Camino College completed a three-game sweep of Long Beach with a 16-4 victory on Saturday afternoon at Long Beach City College.

The Warriors pounded out 17 hits including a pair of home runs as all nine starters recorded at least one hit. Gil Solis went 2-for-4 with six RBIs as his first-inning grand slam opened the floodgates for the Warriors offense. The team would take a 9-0 lead through four before the Vikings finally broke through for a run in the fifth to break the shutout.

Gio Crow and Ryan Matsukawa each went 3-for-5 to lead the hit parade as Matsukawa scored three times while Crow scored twice and drove in a pair of RBIs. Aden Laureano went 2-for-3 and blasted his first career home run in the eighth inning to cap off the scoring for the Warriors.

Luke Steward picked up his seventh win of the season as he allowed two runs on five hits with four walks in six innings of work. He struck out nine batters, a new season high and the most since he struck out seven against Cerritos on March 29.

With the win, the Warriors wrap up SCC play with a 16-8 record to clinch third place in the conference. Its their highest finish in the conference since 2023 when the Warriors won the SCC regular season title. The Warriors can still move up to second place in the conference if L.A. Harbor wins two of three games against second-place Cerritos in their upcoming series which begins Tuesday in Norwalk.

The Warriors will wrap up the season with two non-conference road games beginning Tuesday against Inland Empire Athletic Conference champions Chaffey at 2 p.m.