Over the course of one
weekend, the Cerritos College baseball team
showed their ability to shut teams down with
their pitching and defense, while they also
displayed an ability to slug out a victory.
The Falcons opened the weekend with a 2-1,
12-inning victory at Palomar College on
Friday and then swept a double-header at San
Diego Mesa College on Saturday, 10-5 and
17-15. With the win, Cerritos is now 6-1 on
the season and will host Victor Valley
College at 2:00 p.m. on Friday.
The pitching duel against
Palomar was spearheaded by sophomore starter
Kevin Camacho (Santa Fe HS),
who went eight innings and allowed four hits
and one unearned run. He was relieved by
freshman
Miguel Flores (St. John
Bosco HS), who went the final four
innings and worked out of two jams to earn
the win.
After tying the game at
1-1 in the top of the fourth inning on a
sacrifice fly by freshman first baseman
Trever Blood (La Mirada HS),
Cerritos was limited to just three singles
until the top of the 12th inning. With one
out, sophomore outfielder
Jake Moore (Palisade, CO HS)
was hit by a pitch. After a single by
sophomore outfielder
Andrew Baslow (Chatsworth
HS) put runners on first and second,
freshman shortstop Jerry Pena
(Los Altos HS) laced a two-out
single to drive in Moore. Flores, who had
his hands full in the 11th inning and worked
out of a bases loaded, one-out situation,
shut down the Comets in the bottom of the
12th. After allowing a lead-off double to
Marcus Hatley, who was sacrificed to third
base, Flores got the next batter to strike
out before inducing a popup to second base
for the final out of the game.
In the first of two
against San Diego Mesa, freshman pitcher
John Ortega (Downey HS)
went six innings and allowed three earned
runs to pick up his second win of the
season. He left with a 9-3 lead, with the
Olympians scoring a single run in the eighth
inning off freshman
George Sanchez (Gahr HS),
who worked out of a bases loaded jam with
one out. After giving up a solo home run,
followed by a walk, Sanchez was replaced by
freshman
Erick Campos (Norwalk HS),
who loaded the bases before getting the
final two outs on strikeouts to earn a save.
Offensively, the Falcons
put five on the board in the fourth and four
more crossed the plate in the sixth inning.
In the fourth, Pena led off with a double
and moved to third base on a single by
sophomore catcher
Phil Rodriguez (Norwalk HS),
before scoring on a single by Flores, who
was playing third base. After a base hit by
Moore loaded the bases, consecutive singles
by freshman designated hitter
Guillermo Garcia (Artesia
HS) and sophomore outfielder
Nick Armstrong (Marina HS)
scored runs. An error led to the fifth run
of the inning. Five straight hits in the
sixth, including a two-run single by Blood,
accounted for their runs, while Armstrong
picked up an RBI in the ninth inning on a
fielder's choice, which scored Rodriguez.
It was much more of the
same in the second game, as the Falcons
pounded out 17 hits to account for their 17
runs. They held leads of 7-1, 11-4 and 13-10
before the Olympians took a 15-13 lead
heading into the bottom of the seventh
inning. Six errors by Cerritos led to eight
of the 15 SD Mesa runs. In the seventh
inning, Garcia led off by reaching on an
error before Armstrong was hit by a pitch.
After a pitching change, sophomore second
baseman
Jose Serrano (Artesia HS)
loaded the bases with a single, before a
walk to Baslow forced in the first run.
After a out was made, Pena drove in a run
with a sacrifice fly, while Rodriguez and
Flores each slapped out hits to drive in
runs and give Cerritos the lead. Sophomore
Lalo Ceniceros (El Rancho
HS) pitched the final three innings and
set down the final six batters to earn the
win.
On the day, Armstrong
(four runs), Blood (four RBI, two runs) and
Baslow (four runs, two RBI) each had three
hits, while Serrano and Camacho (three RBI),
who started the game at catcher, had two
hits.
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