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The baseball team took a step backwards on Feb. 5 with an 11-4 loss at Grossmont College and then on Feb. 7 the Lancers were buried from the start with a 16-2 trampling at the hands of Irvine Valley College on the road.

The game visiting IVC was a nightmare for PCC, since the team also gave up a grand slam home run in the bottom of the third inning to IVC freshman second baseman Dallas Porter.

Against IVC, sophomore starting pitcher Trevor Gleason could not make it out of the first inning, giving up seven earned runs before being replaced by freshman pitcher Rick Espana after only recording one out.

“Trevor’s outing that day was very unfocused. He didn’t execute his pitches well and got behind in the count to every batter that he faced,” said Head Coach Evan O’Meara. “Our hitters got sad and weren’t able to separate their play from the pitching performance.”

The Lancers managed to score their only two runs in the top of the fifth inning, in which sophomore David Halstead and freshman Angelo Robledo scored. Gleason, who had a fantastic start on Feb. 1 against Antelope Valley College, will look to rebound in his next outing.

“I wasn’t feeling 100 percent when I went out there,” said Gleason. “I just couldn’t find it, but I plan on coming out strong next game.”

While visiting Grossmont College, which is in El Cajon, the Lancers had more success in the early part of the game. PCC managed to score three runs in the top of the fourth inning, making the score 5-4 in favor of Grossmont. However, the Lancers didn’t score another run the rest of the game while Grossmont tallied six more runs.

“We need to pitch better,” said Coach O’Meara. “We didn’t offer much in terms of hitting support either, but what’s difficult is that the guys let the pitchers dictate how they felt about the rest of the game.”

Sophomore outfielder Tarik El Abour, who took the 2012 season off, was a standout player for the Lancers against Grossmont, having two hits and a walk in the game. Through four games, he statistically is one of the Lancers’ best hitters, tallying four hits in nine at-bats with a great .643 on-base percentage. He has also scored four runs, the most on the team.

“Last year was really humbling,” he said. “It made me appreciate the game a lot more so I could put things in perspective.”

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