Hancock Baseball Falls 6-2 to Cuesta

Zach Lampreia had two hits and drove in two runs, but the Allan Hancock College baseball team dropped a 6-2 Western State Conference game to Cuesta College on Thursday afternoon. The Bulldogs fell to 7-9 in conference play and 15-13 overall. Cuesta improved to 17-9 overall and 10-4 in conference. The Cougars won all four games during the regular season against Hancock.

Hancock scored first thanks to a two-out rally. Tim Mahoney doubled with two outs and nobody on base. Lampreia followed with a RBI-single that drove in Mahoney, a St. Joseph High School graduate with the first run of the game.

Cuesta tied it in the fourth on a Hunter Reade single off Hancock starter Walker Armstrong.

The Bulldogs regained the lead in the bottom half when Kyle von Tillow singled and advanced to second on an error on the play. Mahoney singled to advanced von Tillow to third. Lampreia laid down a safety squeeze-bunt that advanced Mahoney and drove in von Tillow to give Hancock a 2-1 advantage.

The lead was short-lived because Tanner Bos hit a solo-home run to lead off the fifth to start a four-run inning for the Cougars. Cuesta added an insurance run in the eighth.

Mahoney and Lampreia had two hits apiece to lead the Bulldogs' seven-hit attack. Colby Barrick, von Tillow and Justin Daraban each had one hit.

Armstrong took the loss to fall to 3-5. He allowed eight hits, three walks and struck out six. He was charged with five earned runs over seven innings. Chance Miranda threw the final two innings in relief and allowed one hit, a run and issued one walk.

Neil Uskali earned the win for Cuesta. He struck out 10 and allowed six hits and two runs over eight innings.

Hancock will play at L.A. Pierce on Friday in a Western State Conference game set to start at 2 p.m. The game was moved up from Saturday due to the wet weekend forecast.