Glendale college baseball stays perfect in conference
GLENDALE — Dexter Wilkerson showed a bit of emotion after escaping a bases-loaded jam.
The Glendale Community College starting pitcher walked off the mound pounding his fist into his glove to end the second inning.
Wilkerson went six innings on Thursday, giving up three hits and striking out seven to lift Glendale to a 3-0 Western State Conference East Division win against Barstow at Stengel Field.
“I wanted to get out of that situation and I trusted myself,” said Wilkerson, a freshman right-hander who struck out the side in the third. “I stayed relaxed and got the final out.
“That’s the thing with our team is that we are confident we can get the job done. It was my best outing of the year.”
Wilkerson yielded three hits in the second before getting a pop-up to end the threat.
It seemed to boost Glendale (21-9, 10-0 in the division), which has won 10 of its last 11 games and is ranked seventh in the California Community College Athletic Assn. Southern California poll.
“Dexter is getting confidence and more experience under his belt,” said Glendale coach Chris Cicuto, whose team recorded a 16-5 win at Barstow on Tuesday. “He’s extremely confident and that was big to get out of that jam. He’s done a very good job at mixing his pitches.”
Glendale relievers Felix Rubi and Kevin Holcomb combined with Wilkerson for the shutout. Rubi went two innings with three strikeouts and Holcomb tossed the ninth for the save. Wilkerson, Rubi and Holcomb limited Barstow (13-17, 2-8) to six hits.
Glendale manufactured single runs in the third and sixth via sacrifice flies.
The Vaqueros took a 1-0 lead in the third on a fly out to left by Mitchell Rathbun that scored Jake Selco.
Glendale scored twice in the sixth. A fly ball to center by Jacob Gribbin scored Brandon Lewis (St. Francis High) to make it 2-0. Andrew Tinoco followed with a solo home run to left to cap the scoring.
Tinoco homered for the second straight game after missing two weeks because of a broken nose.
“It’s just been about getting my timing back,” Tinoco said. “I got a fastball that I could handle. It’s exciting to win games and see everybody do their job.”
The Vaqueros, who held a two-game lead over Citrus entering Thursday’s contest, finished with five hits.
“We’ve won some close games and we’ve had to rally from multiple runs down,” Cicuto said. “It’s a sign of being confident.
“Barstow pitched well today and we manufactured two runs. It’s extremely hard to be able to go out there and sweep somebody. We’re very happy with where we are right now, but there’s still a lot of division baseball games left to be played.”
Glendale and Barstow will wrap up the three-game series at 1 p.m. Saturday at Barstow.
Twitter: @TCNCharlesRich
