Sherwood Hits Close to Home : College baseball: Double in ninth by former Burroughs catcher sparks Cuesta to a 10-8 victory over Pierce in battle of divisional leaders.

There’s no place like home, or at least closer to it, for Bobby Sherwood.

Sherwood, a former Burroughs High catcher now at Cuesta College, hit a two-run double with one out in the top of the ninth inning Saturday to give the Cougars the tying and go-ahead runs in a 10-8 victory over Pierce.

Cuesta (24-11, 11-2 in conference play) entered the game with a four-game cushion over Moorpark in the Western State Conference’s North Division. Pierce (16-12, 8-5) had its lead over Bakersfield in the South shrink to one-half game. The Cougars rallied for three runs in the ninth against relief ace Chris Frith-Smith (1-2). Troy Silva squeezed home Ryan Weeks with the final run.

“We played as bad as we can play for the first half (of the game) but our bats kept us in it,” Cuesta Coach Larry Lee said. “Some of our best hitters are just starting to get in a groove.”

Pierce opened a 4-0 lead in the second against right-hander Mario Mendoza with the help of two errors.

First baseman Kevin Milligan led off with a home run to left-center field. With one out, a two-base error by second baseman Kenny McMurry on a grounder by Robert Vazquez allowed Brian Sturges to score from second and John Novak from first for a 3-0 advantage.

Vazquez, who had three hits, scored on a two-out single by Cesar Martinez.

The Brahmas got two more in the third on run-scoring singles by Novak and Vazquez with two out. Cuesta started its comeback with two runs in the fourth against right-hander Jason Warren, who made it only to the sixth inning, when the Cougars added three runs.

Bobby Brown led off with a home run, McMurry had an RBI single for one of his four hits and Sherwood added a run-scoring double.

Pierce increased its lead to 8-5 through seven, but Cuesta pulled to within one in the eighth on RBI singles by Troy Silva and Jesse Zepeda.

The Brahmas threatened in the ninth when Novak and pinch-hitter Adam West walked, but Harvey Gamboa got Martinez to hit into a game-ending grounder to second.