After falling behind in all three of their games at the Allan Hancock Tournament during Spring Break, the Cerritos College baseball team was able to come back and win two of the games, which improves their season record to 27-6 on the year. The Falcons, who dropped to #2 in Southern California, will resume their quest for their first South Coast Conference championship since 2003 on Tuesday when they host Mt. San Antonio College at 2:30 p.m.
In the first game, Cerritos found themselves trailing Fresno City College, 5-0 after the first inning, but slowly worked their way back into the game. After getting as close as 5-4 through eight innings, the Rams put three more on the board to post an 8-4 victory. On the second day, the Falcons trailed Allan Hancock College, 3-1 after four innings, but tied the game with two in the top of the fifth inning. After the Bulldogs tied the game at 4-4, Cerritos scored twice in the top of the eighth inning and went on to win, 6-4, Trailing 6-2 against Cuesta College after four innings on the third day, the Falcons ended up in a seesaw battle that went 10 innings, with Cerritos scoring three in the 10th inning and recorded an 11-8 victory.
In that win against the Cougars, the Falcons scored four runs in the top of the sixth to tie the game at 6-6, as freshman third baseman Miguel Flores (St. John Bosco HS) led off with a double before freshman Guillermo Garcia (Artesia HS) drew a walk. Sophomore outfielder Jake Moore (Palisade, CO HS) advanced the runners with a sacrifice before sophomore outfielder Nick Armstrong (Marina HS) drove in a run with a base hit. A walk to sophomore infielder Jose Serrano (Artesia HS) was followed by a Cougar error, which scored a run, while freshman first baseman Trever Blood (La Mirada HS) tied the game with a two-run single.
It was an 8-6 Cerritos lead after single runs in the eighth and ninth innings, but Cuesta tied the game with two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning off Flores, who leads the state with eight saves. In the 10th inning, Blood doubled with one out and scored on a single by sophomore catcher Phil Rodriguez (Norwalk HS), while freshman outfielder Anthony Topete (Norwalk HS) drew a walk. After the second out of the inning was recorded, sophomore pitcher Lalo Ceniceros (El Rancho HS), who came on in relief of Flores, drove in a run with a base hit in his first at-bat of the season. Moore closed out the scoring with a run-scoring single. Ceniceros pitched a perfect 10th inning to earn the win.
On the day, Blood led the team by going 4-for-5 with two RBI, while Flores had three hits. Armstrong, Topete and Moore each had two hits, while the Falcons recorded 17 hits in the game.
In the comeback against Allan Hancock, Cerritos scored twice in the fifth inning, as freshman shortstop Jerry Pena (Los Altos HS) and Blood each collected RBI singles. They took the lead in the sixth inning after Flores reached on a fielder's choice, followed by a single from Garcia. Armstrong responded with an RBI single, but the lead was short-lived, as the Bulldogs tied the game in the seventh inning and chased sophomore starter Kevin Camacho (Santa Fe HS) along the way. Flores did pitch the final three innings to earn his eighth save, while Camacho picked up the win.
In the eighth inning, Flores singled with one out before Garcia drew a walk. Armstrong loaded the bases with a hit, with Serrano driving in the game-winning runs with a two-run single. Armstrong and Blood each had three hits in the win, while Serrano added two base hits.
After falling behind 5-0 to Fresno City, the Falcons worked their way back into the game by scoring the next four runs and trailed, 5-4 heading into the ninth inning. However, a costly error helped the Rams get three runs and post the 8-4 win. Sophomore starter Robbie Dominguez (El Rancho HS) suffered his first loss of the season, but aside from his troublesome first inning, allowed just one hit and struck out nine over the next seven innings. Garcia got Cerritos to within a 5-4 game in the bottom of the eighth inning with a pinch-hit two-run double, while Blood and Serrano each added RBI singles.
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