In the first round of the Southern California Regional Playoffs, the Falcons’ baseball team swept the series 2-0 against the Los Angeles Pierce College Brahamas.

Following the last game that won the series against Pierce College on May 5, the Falcons who are now 31-11 overall in the season, will host the El Camino College Warriors in the Southern California Super Regional.

With the Falcons seeded first in the playoffs, they have home field advantage against their upcoming opponents.

The Falcons won the first game of the series against Pierce College 7-6, playing 11 innings with freshman left-fielder Gabriel Gonzalez scoring the winning run in the bottom of the eleventh inning.

Following the first win, the Cerritos College baseball team closed out the last game of the series against the Brahmas 9-4.

The Falcons started the game with a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning and then extending the score to 4-0 in the top of the third.

The team came close to losing the lead in the bottom of the seventh inning with the Brahmas coming back, but still down one (5-4).

Cerritos College took off in the eighth inning scoring in three runs and capping the game off in the ninth inning with a final run.

Head coach Ken Gaylord thought the team was almost there, saying, “I was proud of our first year guys and I think in this series our sophomores were pressing.”

“We’re all gonna die anyway, go out swinging,” said Gaylord referring to the team being under pressure.

Gaylord finds the first round of playoffs being the toughest as it is a round where he personally doesn’t know how the team will react, but following that hopes the team can learn from the first one to prepare them for the next one.

Gaylord ended with, “I tell my guys we’re the number one seed for a reason, play like you’re the number one seed without putting pressure on yourself.”

Sophomore designated hitter Jakob Gonzalez felt like he had a good performance on the game against Pierce College.

Jakob Gonzalez said, “I hit the ball hard, tried to put the ball in play and it just fell into my advantage.”

With the close win in the first playoff game, Jakob Gonzalez says it wasn’t the best day, but with the second game they came out with a different mindset.

Jakob Gonzalez ended with, “We just gotta keep playing ball, we can’t fix something that’s not broken. We have to be aggressive and play inning by inning.”

Jakob Gonzalez finished the game with two runs, three hits and two RBI’s.

Gabriel Gonzalez felt like his first three at bats, he was getting to big and made a slight adjustment on his last two and luckily got to fast balls down the middle.

“I think we did pretty good, we can do a lot better than this. We gave up eight hits, we got 12 hits, but overall pitching, hitting and defense was there,” Gabriel Gonzalez said.

Gabriel Gonzalez says there is pressure being the number one seed, hoping to get better every game, but believes the team’s playing like the number one seed.

Improvement is always around the corner for Gabriel Gonzalez, “Running, base stealing, hitting, defense, everything, there’s always something to improve everyday,” he said.

Gabriel Gonzalez was at bat five times, had two hits and scored twice in the game’s entirety.

Sophomore Micah Hee pitched a total of five innings, faced 26 batters, went 91-53 in pitches to strikes and had six strikeouts.

Hee said, “Definitely not one of my best outings, but I was able to keep us in the game.”

“Weather is always a factor, but you have fight through it, stick to your mechanics, to what you know and try your best,” Hee said.

Hee hopes to win every ball game to come, even though they won the series, he says, “We’re capable of much more.”

With this win Hee improved to 4-2 on the season in pitching.

Freshman catcher Andre Alvarez spoke on the team’s performance saying, “I feel like we came out with great energy, we had the killer instinct to play all nine innings and not take anything for granted.”

Alvarez gave praise to the pitching for holding it down and offense for being in the zone all nine innings.

“We just wanna go out there and play hard, that’s what we have to do. Every opponent’s gonna be tough from here on out, so we have to be well prepared,” said Alvarez referring to moving past the first round.

Alvarez finished the game with two RBIs, was at bat four times and had one hit.

The Cerritos College baseball team will start the series against El Camino College at home on May 11, with the second game the following day and a third the day after, if necessary.