While the weather was cold for most of the series, the Cerritos College baseball team was on fire.
The Cerritos College Falcons were able to complete a three-game sweep of the Pasadena City College Lancers thanks to some solid pitching and timely hitting when it mattered most.
Game one at Kincaid Field on Tuesday, April 5 had very little scoring and hitting as the Falcons and Lancers only got five hits apiece, but Cerritos was able to eke out a 3-1 win.
Mike Heenan, Derrick Edwards and Kenton McDonald knocked in the runs for the Falcons, but it was the pitching performance of Sean Kinnicutt that was the story of the game.
Kinnicutt pitched seven shutout innings, and while he did not strike anyone out, the defense helped out in a big way.
“[Pasadena] put a lot of ground balls in play, and it was very easy for my teammates to field those ground balls and get me out of jams,” Kinnicutt said. “My mechanics were a little shaky, but my teammates bailed me out with double plays.”
In game two, the Falcons routed the Lancers 8-1 thanks to their bats producing 15 hits, the biggest being a three-run home run by Fermin Beza in the bottom of the fifth inning.
“The first pitch was a curveball and I knew I was going to get a fastball next,” Beza said.
“Sure enough, it was a fastball and it was in a spot where I get a lot of hits, and I lined it over the fence.
“I spent a lot of time in the cage, and that is how I have been doing well at the plate,” he added.
Jonathan Marriott had another strong outing as he lasted seven innings while only allowing one run and two hits and struck out five Pasadena batters.
Marriott said afterwards, “I tried to do the best I could, and I could say I did great today. My teammates also played great defense behind me especially since they stayed focused on fielding ground balls.
“I am also good at fielding ground balls and we all worked together as a team and that was how we were able to win,”
The game in Pasadena at Jackie Robinson Field was supposed to be on Thursday, April 7 but it was rescheduled for Monday, April 11 due to rain.
The Falcons jumped on the Lancers early and often in the make-up game as every batter in the lineup got at least one hit and it led to a 14-5 blow out and the series sweep.
Cerritos wrapped 16 hits total with 12 of them knocking in runs.
Catcher Gary James, who led the Falcons with four RBIs in game three, said, “We were very aggressive at the plate. [Pasadena’s] pitchers threw us a lot of fastballs and we attacked them well.
“It’s going to take everything we did this series plus better pitching and defense to beat Long Beach,” he added.
With the sweep, Cerritos moves to 17-10 overall and 9-3 against South Coast Conference opponents.
