With the regular season coming to a conclusion, the Cerritos College baseball team is inching closer to their first South Coast Conference Championship since 2011, and 32nd in school history. On Tuesday, the Falcons posted a 4-3 win over visiting ECC Compton Center to improve to 23-11 overall and 14-5 in the SCC. They hold a one-game lead over both East Los Angeles and Long Beach City College with two games remaining. The team will travel to Compton on Thursday for a 2:30 p.m. game and then face the Tartars (14-20, 6-13) at 2:30 p.m. on Friday.

Cerritos took a quick 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning against starting pitcher Pedro Fierros (3-3). With two outs, sophomore winning pitcher Jared Robinson (Bishop Amat HS) reached on an infield error and then stole second base. Sophomore third baseman Hayden Stevens (Katella HS) drew a walk, which set the table for sophomore first baseman Jose Romero(Whittier HS). He laced a 1-2 pitch into the right field gap for a two-run double.

It was a 3-0 lead after Robinson led off with a double and eventually came home on a sacrifice fly from freshman second baseman Victor Guadalupe (La Quinta HS).

Robinson (9-4) was cruising through the first six innings, as he limited the Tartars to three hits and kept them off the scoreboard. He allowed two of those hits in the first inning, but a double play ended Compton's threat. After giving up a leadoff single in the fourth inning, Robinson retired nine straight batters until Josh Palmer opened the seventh inning with a single. Another single and sacrifice moved the runners around until Michael Flores and Michael Alexander delivered consecutive RBI base hits to make it a 3-2 game.

The Falcons picked up what turned out to be the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning after freshman outfielder Shane Preston (Deer Creek, OK HS) reached base on an infield error with one out. He stole second base and then came home on an RBI double from freshman shortstop Daniel Lopez (Montebello HS).

ECC Compton Center got that run right back on an RBI single from Palmer before Robinson struck out Martin Teague with a runner on second base to end the inning. Sophomore Elpidio Martin (Lynwood HS) came on in the ninth inning and received a little help when Flores was called out for batter's interference when pinch-runner Kaleb Farley attempted to steal second base. He tried once again, but sophomore catcher Chris Carrillo (St. Paul HS/San Jose State University) threw him out to end the game, which earned Martin his eighth save of the season.

Photos by Daryl Peterson