On Tuesday, Cerritos College baseball fell behind early versus Santa Ana College and was never able to make up the substantial deficit in the 13-4 loss.
Falcons’ starting pitcher, Joseph Cossette, allowed three runs in the first inning, despite striking out three batters in the inning.
Santa Ana’s Cedrick Perez drove in the Dons’ first run of the game on a single to right field, and two runs followed on consecutive wild pitches to make it 3-0.
Cerritos’ began to chip away at the Dons’ lead in the bottom of the third inning with the help from lead-off hitter Julian Francois.
The freshman singled up the middle to gets things started for the Falcons, advanced to second base on a wild pitch, and then scored on Sawyer Chesley’s timely two-out RBI-double.
Francois finished the game going 3-for-4 at the plate and scored twice.
Santa Ana broke the game open in the fourth inning to go ahead 7-1. The Dons’ were able string hits together against the Falcons’ Cossette, who had six strikeouts before being replaced on the mound by Jael Leal after 3.2 innings of work.
Cerritos’ used five different pitchers in the game following Cossette’s exit.
“I just saw it as an opportunity to get some pitchers some innings,” Cerritos’ head coach Vic Butler said after the game. “There’s some guys that have been sitting down there in the bullpen waiting for their turn.”
Santa Ana’s Christian Thompson drove in two of the four runs in the fourth inning on his RbI-double over the center fielder’s head. Thompson finished the game going 2-for-2, with three walks, three runs batted in, and two runs scored.
The Cerritos offense was held down for the most part by the opposing starting pitcher, Brady Ashworth. The right-hander for the Dons’ allowed one run on five hits over six innings, with two walks, and six strikeouts.
Santa Ana scored two more times in the top of the fifth inning on another Thompson single, and then Thomas Williams followed with an RBI-single of his own off pitcher Noah Ortega.
The Dons’ took a commanding 11-1 lead in the seventh inning with some help from the Falcons’ defense. Thompson scored on a wild pitch, and another run scored on a fielding error two batters later.
“We’re trying to get prepared for conference play,” Butler said. “My players do understand the things the coaches are trying to preach to them. If you don’t prepare yourselves at practice, if you don’t throw strikes, if you don’t take care of the baseball game the score can get out of hand.”
The Falcons’ showed signs of life in the bottom half of the seventh inning. Shortstop Andy Vega hit a two-run home run over the left field wall to give the Falcons’ some hope for a potential comeback.
Cerritos scored once more a few batters later when Daniel Castellanos reached on a fielding error and Moses Dokes scored to make it 11-4.
Santa Ana’s final two runs came in the eighth inning on Evan Leibl’s RBI-triple and Cesar Correa’s RBI-single to make it the 13-4 final score.
