Baseball Plays Full Slate of Conference Games This Week

The Hancock baseball team has a full slate this week with three Western State Conference games starting on Tuesday at Moorpark at 2:30 p.m. The Bulldogs start the week 3-5 in conference and in fifth place. They are 6-11 overall after a 4-2 non-conference win last Friday at West Hills-Coalinga. Lucas Martin threw five shutout innings or two-hit relief and the Bulldogs broke a 2-2 tie with two runs in the eighth inning. Ellis Gerussi-Turner and Tim Mahoney led the Bulldogs with two hits apiece in the victory.

Moorpark sits in sixth place in the conference standings at 3-7 and 9 -9 overall. The Raiders are coming off a 1-0 loss at first place Oxnard. Riley Conlan leads the team with a .397 average, 12 RBI and six stolen bases. Garrett Serino is hitting .333 with eight RBI.

The Bulldogs host Moorpark on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. in Santa Maria to close out the home-away series.

Then on Saturday, Hancock plays at Santa Barbara at 1 p.m. Santa Barbara starts the week 12-4 overall and 5-3 in conference. The Vaqueros are in third place in the conference standings. Offensively, Connor McManigal leads the team with 11 RBI, while Matt Henderson is hitting .362 and Dallas Bacon is at a .359 clip.

The Bulldogs have dropped their last four conference games, three of which were one-run losses. Gerussi-Turner, a freshman shortstop, leads the team with a .412 batting average, followed by Hunter Christensen, who is hitting .320. Zach Lampreia leads the team with 7 RBI.