The Cerritos College Baseball Team claimed a stunning victory (12-3) for the South Coast Conference against LA Harbor on Friday, Mar. 17.
The win comes after a series of reschedulings due to unprecedented rain. Rene Galvan threw the starting pitches for the Falcons.
At the bottom of the first inning, Julian Francois flew out and Ryan Skjonsby walked. Andy Vega set a starter pace for the Falcons, advancing to third base and scoring shortly after.
The bottom of the second faltered as Anthony Godfrey was hit by a pitch and then picked off.
Tensions were high after LA Harbor scored, which tied the score to (2-2) at the top of the third inning.
The bottom of the third inning was prime time for the Falcons, scoring six runs in consecutive harmony.
Nico Briones secured the third run of the golden hour, followed by Jason Givens advancing to third with ease.
Skjonsby scored the fourth run, Nate Gardenswartz singled to left field and Givens scored, giving the Falcons their fifth run.
With LA Harbor at two points, the Falcons knew they had the distance but kept pushing.
Godfrey, Francois and Gardenswartz chalked up the last three points of the third inning, giving Cerritos a substantial lead.
Keanu Rodriguez assumed position as the pitcher for Galvan at the top of the fourth inning.
Bottom of the fourth, Skjonsby and Isaac Vega scored the ninth and tenth run, making Cerritos eight points ahead.
Godfrey scored on a wild pitch, allowing C. Vega to advance to second and Francois advanced to third.
LA Harbor scored their third point at the top of the fifth inning.
Vega reached first base on a fielder’s choice and then advanced to second base after a throwing error.
Scott Mitchell and AJ Gonzalez singled at the bottom of the sixth inning.
Conner Sullivan went up to pinch hit for Gardenswartz and doubled to center field.
The bottom of the eighth inning was Cerritos’ last with some strikeouts and a pop-up from Chris Marquis.
Cruz Mata expressed his emotions about the team’s win after a celebratory cheer on the field.
“Good, our pitchers were, been hot,” Mata said, “They were expected to shove and they did, hitters wanted us to keep them on the ground, get a lot of hits, we did both of those, we made plays for our pitchers and got a lot of hits and runs.”
Cerritos’ Head Coach, Vic Buttler, shared his thoughts on the Falcons’ play and the nature of the team.
“It’s a play with really good energy,” Buttler said, “We’ve been working on building continuity. I mean due to the weather we haven’t really practiced much.”
The Falcons’ head coach also talks about the rescheduling problems, “We haven’t played one complete series this entire season in conference.”
“We’ll play a game or two, then we reschedule a game to another week and we play a game or two then reschedule…we had a chance to get little bit of practice time in this week and then we’re just building that continuity…”
“I was just telling them over there that our record in our stats,” Coach Buttler said, “They don’t reflect the type of team that we are. We’re a lot better team than what meets the eye on paper.”
The Cerritos Falcons will be playing at home against Rio Hondo on Mar. 20 at 2:30 p.m.
