In their final game of the season, the Cerritos College baseball team posted a 4-1 non-conference win over Ventura College on April 26 at Kincaid Field.
Paced by six shutout innings from freshman pitcher No. 15 John Chavez and a pair of solo home runs from sophomore shortstop No. 4 Trevor McInerney, the Falcons avoided finishing the season with the worst record in school history. The team went 7-29 in 2012.
Making his first start after 18 relief appearances, Chavez worked out of a first-and-third situation in the first inning, as well as getting outfielder No. 20 Jacob Harris to fly out to end the fourth inning with the bases loaded.
Although Chavez had just one 1-2-3 inning, he was able to keep the Pirates off the board for the first six innings.
McInerney got the scoring started for the Falcons in the bottom of the first inning with his seventh home run of the season. Cerritos added a pair of unearned runs in the third inning, thanks to three Ventura errors. Freshman outfielder No. 17 Wyatt Hall led off by reaching base on a fielding error, and after he stole second base, beat the throw to third on a ground ball by McInerney.
Another infield fielding error brought home the first run of the game, with a throwing error on a fielder’s choice accounting for the second run.
The second run was thanks to a fielder’s choice from first baseman No. 24 Nicholas Martinez, who advanced to second base after an error, first baseman No. 25 Michael Gonzalez was out in second base and McInerney scored.
Sophomore pitcher No. 10 Aaron Paek came on in the seventh inning and limited Ventura to just two hits and an unearned run to pick up his first save of the season.
In the top of the eighth inning, Ventura scored their only run thanks to a single to left field from Tovar and first baseman No. 10 Junior Sandoval scored.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, McInerney launched his eighth home run of the season to drive in the final run of the game. The eight home runs in a season were the most since Trevor Blood hit eight back in the 2008 season.
Cerritos previous six games: Cerritos 5-11 Golden West, Cerritos 6-5 Fresno City, Cerritos 1-16 Cuesta–during the Allan Hancock tournament–, Cerritos 1-10 Bakersfield, Cerritos 6-13 Pasadena City, Cerritos 3-9 Pasadena City.
When questioned on the team’s performance coach Zamora stated, “We had probably one of our best games of the season, we kept Ventura scoreless for seven innings and got the outs early in the inning and we only had one error today.”
When asked about the team’s sophomores coach Zamora said, “I want to wish them all the best where ever they go I will sure miss them next season and hopefully we can win more games next season.”
