The Cerritos College baseball team hosted the San Joaquin Delta Mustangs on Feb. 2 at Kincaid Field where the Falcons won the battle 4-0 in conditions that weren’t the best due to rain the night before.
A great outing from sophomore starting pitcher Myles Johnson and a 3-4 hitting performance from sophomore third baseman Anthony Bassett were big reasons for the Falcons’ shutout win.
Cerritos was able to apply pressure on the Mustangs’ sophomore starting pitcher Erick Diez early in the bottom of the first inning when they had the bases loaded with two outs. However, they weren’t able to put any runs on the board after.
Johnson was able to cruise all day as he only allowed four hits during his seven inning outing. He was also able to strike out four batters while only walking two.
Johnson explained how he was able to stay mentally locked in during a scoreless ballgame.
He said, “You know, I have a lot of faith in these guys, so if I can go out there and put a zero on the board I know these guys (teammates) got my back behind me.”
He did get into a little bit of trouble in the top of the sixth inning as with two outs a pitch was able to get by freshman catcher Alonso Reyes and allow a runner to advance to third base.
This didn’t affect Johnson as he was able to get the next batter to lineout to sophomore left fielder Nico Briones.
The Falcons and Mustangs battled for the first five innings as both teams were held scoreless.
Head coach Nate Fernley commented on his team’s grit saying, “I was proud of the guys (team) to just keep playing, you know sometimes you try to get outside of yourself. I felt like once the game went on and Myles settled in we were going to find a way to score a couple runs.”
And that’s exactly what happened, in the bottom of the sixth inning the Falcons bats got hot at just the right time.
Freshman right fielder Isiah Rios started the inning by earning a walk.
Sophomore shortstop DJ Massey would follow him by reaching base on a throwing error from the Mustangs freshman relief pitcher Michael Banderas.
With runners on first and second base, Bassett would come up to the plate and smack a ball deep to center field for a double, allowing Rios to score to give the Falcons a 1-0 lead.
The Falcons wouldn’t stop there as sophomore center fielder Marlon Oviedo would reach first base on a successful squeeze bunt scoring Massey.
Cerritos was still not done after Briones grounded out to shortstop, scoring Bassett and advancing Ovideo to second base.
What Oviedo would do next would take all the life out of the Mustangs.
Banderas would wildly skip a pitch in the dirt causing it to bounce off the catcher’s helmet and roll all the way to the Falcons on-deck circle.
Oviedo would then turn on the jets and score all the way from second base as the Mustangs had a hard time getting the ball back to home plate.
After the Falcons’ four-run sixth inning, it was smooth sailing as sophomore relief pitcher Cade Sonoqui would finish the final two innings allowing just one hit.
The Falcons knew before the game that this one wasn’t going to come easy.
“That is a good team over there (San Joaquin Delta) you know they’ve been to the final four like four out of the last five years,” Fernley said. “I think they have seven or eight guys committed division one. So it’s a good team, we knew it wasn’t going to come easy.”
With the win the Cerritos Falcons improved to 4-1 and are now on a four-game win streak.
The Falcons look to finish off the SoCal Challenge tournament with a win at home against a red-hot undefeated Los Angeles Valley team on Feb. 3.
