With the game tied in the seventh inning Saturday, Hancock College designated hitter Jason Carlson hit a ground ball down the third base line that went foul.

"Stay with it 7 trust me," Hancock third base coach Bryn Smith called to Carlson. "Relax. Have some fun."

Carlson belted the next pitch from Ventura right-hander Travis Flowers over the left field fence for a three-run home run. That snapped the 4-4 tie, and Hancock added four more runs in the eighth. The Bulldogs took this Western State Conference North Division game 11-4 at Hancock.

Hancock snapped its three-game losing streak, squaring its WSC North record at 11-11 and its overall mark at 16-16.

"I/d been pressing a lot lately 7 I hadn/t been getting many hits," Carlson said. "Being relaxed sure would have helped."

The Bulldogs can breathe a little easier about their post-season prospects but they are still, as some would say, not in a good place.

Moorpark sits atop the WSC North at 14-8 after edging Santa Barbara City College 7-6 Saturday. Cuesta is second at 13-9 after losing 4-2 to Oxnard that day. Oxnard is third at 12-10.

The Bulldogs have been WSC North Division runners-up for at least the past three seasons behind Cuesta and have qualified for the playoffs each time.

"We/ve got two tough ones coming up," Carlson said.

The Bulldogs play at Moorpark at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday and must win there to have any chance to at least finish second. Hancock plays at Oxnard at 2:30 Thursday. The Bulldogs have split their games at Moorpark and lost both at Oxnard this year.

A tie with Cuesta for second place would not do it for the Bulldogs. The Cougars would win the tiebreaker since they won the season series three games to two, so either a Cuesta win or a Hancock loss from here on out puts the Bulldogs out of the playoff picture..

Hancock finishes its regular season with a 1 p.m. home game next Saturday against Santa Barbara.

The Vaqueros have beaten the Bulldogs in three of their previous four meetings. In one of those, Santa Barbara came from six runs down to win.

Hancock relief pitcher Todd Nelson made sure there would be no collapse Saturday. He came in for starter Drew Bernier to start the seventh, and pitched shutout ball. He allowed just two hits.

"Drew just ran out of gas a little bit in the sixth," when Ventura scored three runs to take a brief 4-3 lead, Hancock coach Chris Stevens said. "Then Todd came in and picked us back up."

Hancock first baseman Adam Cole picked Nelson up with two fine defensive plays. In the seventh inning he dove to his right, snagged pinch hitter Joshua Feinberg/s grounder down the first base line and beat Feinberg to the bag.

In the eighth, he gloved Rob Jacobson/s sharp grounder and got the out himself once more.

Ventura took a brief 4-3 lead on Brian DeAlba/s sacrifice fly to left that capped the Pirates/ three-run sixth.

The Bulldogs tied the game on Eric Domingues/ sacrifice fly to right in the bottom of the inning. Domingues/ first of his two RBIs was a single to right that put Hancock ahead 2-0 in the second.

Adam MacKay doubled home two runs in the Bulldogs/ four-run eighth. Chuy Frausto drove home the last one with a sacrifice fly.

Ventura helped Hancock quite a bit 7 the Pirates made three errors, leading to five unearned runs. The Bulldogs helped themselves a bunch by rapping 12 hits.

"That/s what had been eluding us 7 getting the clutch hits," Stevens said. "We were fortunate enough to be able to do that today."

Jimmy Van Ostrand doubled twice for the Bulldogs. Carlson and James Bendele also had two hits for Hancock. Bendele had an RBI the hard way when Flowers hit him with a pitch with the bases loaded in the third. That put Hancock ahead 3-0.

Women/s tennis

So. Cal. Ind. Regional

FULLERTON 7 Hancock/s Lori Valadez and Carlene Holst won their quarterfinal match in the Southern California Individual Regional Tournament at Cal State Fullerton and qualified for the State Individual Tournament.

The state tourney takes place next Friday and Saturday in Palm Desert.

Valadez and Holst defeated a College of the Desert team 6-4, 6-2. They lost to the fourth-seeded Cuyamaca pair 6-2, 6-3.

Bulldogs Monica Krier and Clairol Lozano lost to top seeded Ukai Hagiwara and Syaka Sukumoto of Grossmont (El Cajon) 6-4, 6-3 in the round of 16, which started competition Saturday.

Valadez and Krier fell in their first singles matches Saturday. Valadez went down 6-0, 6-3 against Sukumoto, the fifth seed. Krier lost 6-0, 6-3 to top-seeded Hagiwara.

Track

Southern Cal Prelims

GLENDORA 7 Freshman Latiffia Taylor of Hancock qualified for the Southern California Finals in four events at the Southern Cal prelims at Citrus.

Taylor ran the fastest overall time, 14.46, in the women/s 100 meter hurdles. She qualified second in the long jump at 17-1; qualified third in the triple jump at 36-10; and finished third in 12.43 in her 100 heat.

Taylor/s teammate, freshman Bobbie Patton, qualified in the shot put with a personal best 44-1, the best overall mark of the meet. Patton graduated from Righetti.

Patton competed in the javelin and discus, but did not qualify in either. Hancock freshman Kevin Loung, a St. Joseph graduate, competed in the 400 but did not qualify.

Taylor and Patton compete next Saturday in the Southern California Finals at Bakersfield City College.

Prep Swimming

Los Padres League Prelims.

SANTA YNEZ 7 Santa Maria/s Dena and Samantha Lougee each swam the best time in two events at the Los Padres League Preliminaries that were held at Santa Ynez High.

Times were unavailable. The finals take place at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Paul Nelson Pool. Santa Ynez will host the meet. Twelve Santa Maria swimmers, swimming in individual or relay events, have already qualified for the CIF Preliminaries.

Dena Lougee swam the top qualifying times Saturday in the girls 200 and 100 yard freestyles. Samantha Lougee, Dena/s younger sister, was the top qualifier in the girls 200 individual medley and the 100 backstroke.

Santa Maria/s 200 IM and 400 freestyle girls relay teams, Santa Maria/s Megan and Jarod Zimmer (girls and boys 500 freestyle respectively) and St. Joseph/s Samantha Kephart (girls 100 butterfly) were other top qualifiers for the finals.

Top three qualifiers from Santa Maria and St. Joseph included the St. Joseph girls 200 IM relay team (third); Jason Dupere of St. Joseph (second, boys 200 and 100 freestyles); Megan Sly of Santa Maria (third, girls 100 backstroke); and Katie Ferber of St. Joseph (third, girls 200 IM). Jarod Zimmer qualified second in the boys 200 freestyle. Megan Zimmer qualified second in the girls 100 breaststroke.

Track and Field

LPL Prelims

MORRO BAY 7 Daniel Saucedo of St. Joseph won his heats in the boys 100 and 200 meter dashes at the Los Padres League prelims at Morro Bay High.

Finals in running events begin at 3:30 p.m. at Morro Bay High.

Saucedo ran 11.0 in the 100 and 23.3 in the 200 Saturday. Knights Bryant Loung and Billy Ader won their heats in the boys 800 and 1,600 respectively. Loung ran 2:00.0. Ader ran a 4:39.

Other St. Joseph boys qualifiers included Philip Adam, Dominic Catayas, Greg Reynolds, Jacob Arnal and Jeff Adam in the 110 high hurdles, and Philip Adam, Catayas and Arnal in the 330 low hurdles. Philip Adam won his heat in 41.0 in the 330 lows.

St. Joseph girls qualifiers included Alyssa Agin in the 100 and 200; Lisa Wise in the 400; Daina Tubbs in the 800 and 1,600; Vianna Garcia in the 1,600; Jennifer Cruden, Milly Souza and Jeanette Abeytia in the 100 hurdles; and Souza and Cruden in the 300 hurdles.

The St. Joseph and Lompoc boys figure to battle for the league title at the finals. St. Joseph won the teams/ dual meet. Lompoc is the favorite in the girls division.

PAC-5 prelims

ATASCADERO 7 At the PAC-5 League Preliminaries at Atascadero High, Righetti junior Jesus Solis qualified easily for the finals in the 800 and 1,600 meters.

Solis ran a personal best 2:05.78 in the 800 and 4:38.28 in the 1,600. In the boys 100 meters, Mark Malangko won his heat in 11.4 and Chris Brooms was second in the same time in the same time.

Malangko and Brooms will be seeded second and third respectively for the final.

Righetti/s Brett Cornejo qualified fourth in 17.39 in the girls 100 hurdles. She is an alternate in the 100 meters. She ran 14.13 in the prelims.

The finals are Thursday at Atascadero. Field events start at 1 p.m. Running events begin at 3.

Prep Baseball

St. Bonaventure 5, SJ 4

VENTURA 7 The Knights, who were without two starters, made six errors in a non-league loss.

The Seraphs had one earned run against the Knights (8-14).

Scott Domingues and Mark Wilcox had two hits apiece for St. Joseph. Brian McConkey, Sheldon Lechuga, Brian Hernandez and Charlie Perce all doubled for the Knights.

St. Joseph resumes its league schedule with a 4 p.m. game Tuesday at Morro Bay.

Prep Softball

Thousand Oaks Tournament

THOUSAND OAKS 7 Both teams had five hits, but Rosary of Pasadena bunched its together better than Righetti did.

As a result, the fifth-ranked team in Division I defeated the Warriors 3-0 in a first-round game. Righetti (18-6) and Long Beach Millikan were tied 1-1 in the top of the ninth inning when that game was halted because of a power failure.

Righetti coach Richard Cornejo said the teams would likely resume the game where it left off next Saturday during the second weekend of the two-weekend tournament. That would mean Katie Novo would be on second base in the top of the ninth for Righetti.

Antoinette Hernandez drove in the Warriors/ run against Millikan. Righetti resumes its PAC-5 League schedule with a 4 p.m. home game Wednesday against San Luis Obispo.

May 2, 2004