Sophomore right handed pitcher Dylan Algra took the mound for the Falcons, coming off a four hit seven shut-out inning performance in his last start of the season. Algra proceeded to pitch seven innings, giving up three runs on seven hits and striking out eight to earn the win and improve to 2-0 on the year.
After the game, Algra said, “I felt like besides that pitch I missed to the number three hitter I felt good going into it. My first five innings felt good.”
Algra admitted that he lost command on some of his pitches as the game went along, especially in his final two innings of work in which he gave up a run in each inning.
He said catcher Chris Carrillo helped him get out of a jams. “Carrillo got us out of a couple of first and second situations there. He did great back picking the guy and throwing a guy out at second.”
Several Falcons had big days at the plate offensively in the nine run outburst for Cerritos. One of them was outfielder Johnny Martinez.
Martinez led off the game with a single into center field on the second pitch he saw. He would go on to have a 3-5 day at the plate and scored all three times he reached base.
Martinez recalled about how he feels about his performance and said, “Pretty good I’ve been hitting the ball pretty well so far. Hopefully I continue doing that.”
After Algra left the game, right handed pitcher Elpidio Martin came in and pitched two solid shutout relief innings giving up no hits, striking out one. Martin said, “I think I did pretty well. I was locating my spots.”
He went on to say that he was using the inside corner of the plate to get ahead of hitters. Martin talks about how he feels about not giving up a hit “I feel pretty good. I mean it always feels good coming in and shutting people down and just keeping the tempo going.”
Martin continued by putting this performance up there with one of his best so far.
Martin would end the conversation by talking about what a good outing like this can do for his confidence “It does a lot. It shows that you go in there and you have you beast stuff and you just have confidence in your stuff.”
Head baseball coach Ken Gaylord knows shows concern and knows Algra can do better. “You know he’s been better,” he said. “I thought he was a little flat today.”
Gaylord says the Falcons offensive output was ok but against a bad team. He also said the Falcons needing to improve offensively “We’d scored 20 or whatever I’d be happy.” He acknowledged the fact that when his team saw that the opposing catcher didn’t have the best arm, they ran on him every time they got on base totaling in four steals.
He concluded by sharing his thoughts on his number one and two hitters. “I thought Johnny’s been hot and I thought (outfielder Kyle) Carpenter did a good job,” he said.
