The Cerritos College baseball team got off to a hot start, jumping to a 3-0 lead over Citrus College. However a three-run home run in the top of the eighth inning and a run in the ninth inning by Citrus College spoiled the Falcons’ season debut with a 4-3 loss on Friday.
Falcons starting pitcher Jared Robinson threw six innings of shutout baseball game allowing only three hits and delivering seven strikeouts in his debut.
“I felt really good pitching out there. My arm felt strong and I went out there just trying to compete.”
The Falcons complemented Robinson’s pitching performance by scoring two runs off of Citrus College’s starting pitcher Carlos Rosal with Hayden Stevens’ RBI-triple in the first inning and Jose Ayala’s RBI-single in the second inning.
The Falcons avoided danger in the top of the sixth inning as Citrus College had the bases loaded.
The inning and the Falcons’ 2-0 lead was kept safe after Citrus College’s William Ouellette fouled out to first baseman Michael Esparza.
Javier Lozano was sent in to relieve Robinson’s amazing shutout effort in the top of the seventh inning.
Citrus College quickly adapted to Lozano.
In the top of the eighth inning Lozano allowed a walk and a single before giving up a three-run home run to Mike Rowland.
The Citrus College players ran on the field to congratulate Rowland’s comeback home run to bring the team back in to the game.
Robinson said, “Nothing really went wrong for us during the entire game, it was just that one pitch and (Rowland) just hit it out. Sometimes it happens in baseball, and there’s nothing you can really do about it.”
The Falcons gave up another run in the top of the ninth as Joshua Page tripled off of pitcher Dylan Algra, who took the loss.
The Falcons tried to rally in the bottom of the ninth with runners on first and third.
However the late effort was ended on Joe Rivera’s fly ball to left field.
Citrus College assistant coach Bill Viverto said, “I knew that we could come back. We had early inning jitters, and swung at some questionable pitches. But after talking to the players and calming them down we started to get a lot more patient looking for pitches that we could handle.”
Head coach Ken Gaylord felt that the Falcons turned in a phenomenal effort in their season opener, “We out-hit them, and threw more strikeouts. We did play good defense, we just made a really bad pitch on both of their runs with two outs.
“We started eight freshman, and you’ve got to let them make their mistakes and hopefully we’ll come back and play better next time.”
