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Photo by
Juan Velez. Cerritos Baseball was not
able to maintain a 4-3 lead in the 8th
inning over Pasadena City on Saturday
night. |
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Cerritos College
sophomore relief pitcher
Steven
Blanchette (Schurr HS) was one
strike away from helping his team maintain a 4-3
South Coast Conference lead in the top of the eighth
inning on Saturday afternoon at Kincaid Field. After
Pasadena City College shortstop Even Bloem fouled
off two pitches with a 1-2 count, he singled sharply
up the middle to score Enrique Reynoso from third
base. The Lancers would go on to score two more runs
in the inning and posted a 6-4 win over the Falcons.
The loss was the second in a row for Cerritos (9-8
overall, 3-3 SCC), while Pasadena City (5-9, 2-3)
won their third straight. The Falcons will now host
Chaffey College in a non-conference game at 2:00
p.m. at Kincaid Field on Tuesday.
In the top of the
eighth, Reynoso sent a tailing fly ball that
Cerritos left-fielder
David Neff
(John Glenn HS) decided to dive after. But
the ball skipped all the way to the wall and Reynoso
had himself a stand-up triple. After Blanchette
(0-2) struck out Brian Smith, Bloem battled for his
game-tying base hit. Justin Soto followed with a
single to right field that freshman
Joe Terry
(Long Beach Poly HS) booted, allowing Soto
to advance to second base. After Tyler Craig was hit
by a pitch to load the bases, Cerritos shortstop
Max McEleney (Long Beach Wilson HS)
threw away a ground ball by Jeremy Camacho, which
allowed the final two runs to score.
The Falcons had
just taken a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the seventh
inning, as they scored twice to regain the lead.
With a runner on first base and one out, Terry drew
a walk, which brought on relief pitcher Curtis
Johnson to face freshman pinch-hitter
Lemuel
Johnson (Gahr HS). With a 1-1
count, Johnson laced a single to right field that
scored sophomore first baseman
Brian
Gaylord (La Mirada HS) with
the game-tying run. Neff followed with a single to
center field to give Cerritos the lead.
Freshman starting
pitcher
Skye
Severns (Claremont HS) only
had one bad inning in his five innings of work, as
he allowed all three runs in the second inning. In
that stanza, Severns allowed two hits and walked
four. Lancer starting pitcher Chris Reyes lasted
just 2 1/3 innings, as PCC employed five pitchers on
the day.
But the Lancers
came back and picked up their three runs in the
eighth, while closer Eisen Castro went the final two
innings to pick up his second save of the season.
There were several solid defensive plays en route to
the save for Castro, as Bloem handled a hard liner
his way, while Mike Flynn made a diving stop of a
line drive by Terry in the ninth inning to steal an
extra base hit.
McEleney led the
Falcons with three hits, while Neff had two. As for
the Lancers, Camacho went 3-for-5 with Reynoso
collecting two hits and scoring two runs.
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