San Diego Mesa College took on San Diego City College on Feb. 28 with Mesa losing 6-3.

City’s pitcher, Mark Vasquez, kept the Olympian hitters guessing all day long. Vasquez pitched a complete game throwing 128 pitches over nine innings, striking out nine Mesa batters with six of those looking.

Mesa Head Coach Kevin Hazlett said “He did a nice job of keeping us off-balance.”

Garrett Schilling got the scoring started for the Olympians in the second inning with a ground rule double over the center fielders head driving in two, giving Mesa the lead 2-1.

City answered back with two runs of their own in the top of the third. Scoring two more runs off starting pitcher Alberto Bulcao, giving them the lead for good.

Bulcao would only last three innings giving up three runs on three hits and two walks to the 15 batters that he faced.

Mesa would have their chances throughout the game to push more runs across as they tallied 11 hits in all. They ended up having another three runners reach base by either walks or being hit by pitches.

“When we did get guys on base we just never did get a clutch hit all day long,” Hazlett said.

The Knights defense did just as much to keep Mesa from crossing the plate. Picking off a runner at second base in the second inning and throwing out an attempted steal in the fourth.

“The player getting caught stealing, that was a ball in the dirt. He made an aggressive read, and if he gets thrown out, he can’t help that. If they get thrown out that’s part of the game that’s my coaching philosophy. The player getting picked off, however was not real smart,” Hazlett said.

City did a good job of capitalizing when they got runners on base and taking advantage of mistakes. The Knights got nine hits but had another five reach on either walks or those hit by pitches.

Adding to the pitching woes were two runs that were given away to a passed ball and a wild pitch.

“They got hits with guys on base today and we didn’t,” Hazlett said.

The win drops Mesa to 6-5 overall and 1-1 in the conference. While the Knights improve to 4-5 overall and 2-0 in the conference.

The Olympians will be back at home March 5 at 2 p.m. against the Comets from Palomar College.