Two unblocked balls and a throwing error haunted the Falcons in their loss, 7-1, to Palomar College on Wednesday, Feb. 18 at Kincaid Field.

Palomar’s Ryan Lemus struck out swinging but reached first on a wild pitch by Cerritos sophomore pitcher Kyle Carpenter.

A throwing error by Cerritos freshman catcher Gary James resulted in the first run of the game for the Comets.

James reminisced on the error that depleted the momentum for the Falcons at the start of the game.

“It started off with me not blocking the ball, I tried to think about it too much and rush myself with every other thing that happened,” said James.

“With me not blocking the ball, everything just piled on in the first inning, if I block the ball maybe two runs get scored not four.”

A two-run single by Palomar’s Vince Mori brought in the final two runs of the inning giving Palomar an early 4-0 lead in the first.

Head coach Ken Gaylord acknowledged the errors that plagued the Cerritos baseball team.

“We didn’t block two balls, we gave up four runs. We just didn’t block the ball like we’ve been doing. We’re struggling a little bit right now. We’ve done that two games in a row, where we gave the other team four runs,” said Gaylord.

The Falcons made an early momentum-push in the bottom of the third after sophomore Brett Thompson drove in the only run for Cerritos.

Third baseman Victor Guadalupe launched a deep fly ball toward left field only to be caught by Palomar’s Joey Cooper making contact with the left-field wall.

A solo-home run by Palomar’s Francis Christy capitalized the game for the Comets in the top of the fifth inning.

A lack of hits off starting winning pitcher Graham Gomez stunted the Falcons throughout the game.

As the Falcons head to Fullerton College on Friday, Feb. 20, James pinpointed a few things that they as a team must work on to end their two-game losing streak.

“We need to work on slowing the game down and not thinking too much and anticipate what is going to happen and just do our thing.”