In the bottom of the ninth with the game clearly out of reach third basemen Jacob Mayoral hit a single to right to break up a no-hit bid by Compton College pitcher Martin Villanueva, as the Cerritos College baseball team fell to Compton 9-0 Monday afternoon at Kincaid field.
“I think the rain delay gave Villanueva a chance to get some extra rest and come out today very strong,” Compton head coach Shannon Williams. “He was able to hit his spots, get ahead in counts and attack the lefties on Cerritos.”
The game was originally scheduled for Saturday but was pushed back because of rain.
The Falcons were also shut out by Mt. SAC on Friday losing 4-0.
“We really just are not very good offensively right now,” head coach Jack Brooks said, “we can’t win playing like this.”
The Falcons are now 1-2 in the South Coast Conference and 5-9 overall.
During Thursday’s game against Mt. SAC the Falcons failed to get anything going offensively.
“At this level you have to make adjustments during games to be able to compete,” Falcons’ assistant coach Anthony Moreno said. “We do not do that and it is something that the players will have to do now moving forward.”
This marks the fourth defeat in a row, including being swept for the first time in their history, for the Falcons against the Tartars. Last season was much different, where Cerritos dominated the Tartar baseball team.
Williams said, “We have been able to get baseball players here, in the past we have gotten great athletes but they were not baseball players, it is easy to coach when you have great baseball players, “
The Falcon coaches believe that this Compton team is a formidable opponent.
“Compton does a lot of things well, it is very fast and athletic, runs a lot on the base paths and plays a very aggressive style of baseball,” Moreno said.
The Tartars were aggressive on the base paths against the Falcons stealing five bases and being picked-off three times by Falcons‘ starting pitcher Chris Villalobos.
Villalobos went 4 and two-thirds giving up six runs and struck out four.
“With the offense going like that, there’s defiantly pressure, I feel like I have to be perfect every time out,” he said.
The bullpen pitched fairly well with 3 runs in three and one-third.
“The bullpen was the lone bright spot in today’s game,” Brooks said.
