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Making his first relief appearance of the season,
sophomore
John
Ortega (Downey HS) came on in the
bottom of the ninth inning of a 3-3 tie game at
Fullerton College on Thursday with a runner on
second base and one out. After a ground out advanced
the runner to third base, he walked the next two
(one intentionally) before Michael Stephens drove in
the winning run on an infield single for a 4-3
victory. The loss to the Hornets (11-1) was the
sixth in a row for the Falcons (8-8), who open South
Coast Conference action on Saturday at noon against
East Los Angeles College.
In the
ninth, freshman
Doug Wogee
(Sonora HS) opened by surrendering a base hit
to Raul Meraz. After Andrew Velarde grounded out,
pinch-runner Bobby Brown advanced to second base.
That brought on Ortega, who got Erik Ornelas to
ground out, with Brown advancing to third base.
Ortega then walked Michael Vickary and then
intentionally walked Mitch Levier to load the bases.
Stephens then hit a ball deep in the hole at
shortstop, which turned out to be the game-winning
hit.
The Falcons
played from behind at the outset, as the Hornets
scored three times in the bottom of the first inning
against freshman starting pitcher
Tony
Peraza (La Mirada HS), with one of
the runs scoring on a balk.
Cerritos
responded in the fifth inning with three runs to tie
the game. With one out, freshman catcher
Mario
Romero (Los Altos HS) was hit by a
pitch before Wogee, who was the designated hitter,
walked. After a base hit by freshman outfielder
David Neff
(John Glenn HS) loaded the bases, freshman
Chad
Ostahowski (Lake Elsinore HS) drove
in a run on a fielder’s choice. Freshman outfielder
Brian
Gaylord (La Mirada HS) and freshman
second baseman
Brandon
Pesante (La Mirada HS) each followed
with RBI singles to tie the game. The Falcons loaded
the bases again after sophomore first baseman
Trever
Blood (La Mirada HS) was hit by a
pitch, but sophomore
Jerry Pena
(Los Altos HS) flied out to end the inning.
It wasn’t until the top of the
ninth inning before the Falcons had another runner
on base, as Neff and Ostahowski each walked with two
outs. They were stranded after Gaylord grounded out
to end the inning. In fact, the team did not get
another hit after Pesante’s run-scoring single in
the fifth inning, and finished with just five on the
day. |
