A month after being left on Bohl Diamond at Blair Field while Long Beach Poly celebrated a 4-2 walk-off win, the Cabrillo Jaguars exacted their revenge and upset the Jackrabbits 6-1 on Wednesday at Blair.
The loss drops Poly (13-14, 5-4) into four place in the Moore League ahead of Cabrillo (9-8, 5-6) in fifth place.
Cabrillo sophomore Dylan Gambino only allowed two hits in 6.1 innings while making 108 pitches. He struck out four, and issued six walks.
“I can’t say enough about him,” Cabrillo first-year coach Pedro Torres said of Gambino. “Everything was working for him, and he had everyone off balance. Our defense played the way I knew it could.”
Gambino was was relived by Brian Murrillo, and the senior walked one batter but got the final two outs.
“I’ve been thinking about this game for days, and you have to come in confident,” Gambino said. “So that’s what I did. I felt good in the bullpen, my change up was working and it got a lot of pop ups.”
Cabrillo tied the game 1-1 in the second inning, and then took the lead with a pair of runs in the third. The Jaguars broke it open with three runs in the fourth.
“The win doesn’t surprise me, but the score does,” Torres said. “One through nine came through in the clutch.”
Junior Tommy Earl went 3-for-4, and Polino Gonzalez had a two-run triple. Freshman soccer star Arnold Giron had his first hit of the season.
“I’m just a sophomore, and I’ve got a lot left in the tank for this team,” Gambino said. “This won’t be the only win over the top four teams. Coach Torres gives us a lot of confidence and he’s putting in the time to make the program better.”
Torres wanted to credit his pitching coach Danny Puente, and said this win is something he knew his program needed.
“We’re on the map,” Torres said. “We just needed one win over one of the top four teams. We can be that team who can upset you at the end of the season, and in a couple of years I think we can win the Moore League. That ’s how confident I am in building this program.”
