In their first of road four games this week, the Cerritos College baseball team suffered an 11-5 non-conference road loss against Golden West College. It marked the third straight game the Falcons (6-25) allowed 11 runs in a game. The team will now compete in the Allan Hancock Tournament, which starts with a 6:00 p.m. game against Fresno City College at Elks Field in Santa Maria.
The Rustlers (20-14) jumped on sophomore starting pitcher Aaron Paek (Sunny Hills HS/Hope International University) in the bottom of the first inning, as two of the first three batters hit home runs in a six-run inning. It was an 8-0 game after two innings and by the time the Falcons scored in the top of the fifth inning, it was a 9-1 game.
In the fifth, freshman third baseman Matt Den Hartog (Los Alamitos HS) led off with a base hit, with freshman outfielder Nicholas Martinez (La Serna HS) following with a walk. With one out, freshman catcher Gregory Navarro III (West Covina HS) singled to load the bases, which led to freshman second baseman Alejandro Bueno (Centennial, NV HS) driving in Den Hartog with a base hit.
Cerritos left the bases loaded in the fifth inning, while their second run came on a leadoff home run from Martinez in the seventh inning. They never stopped battling and added three runs in the top of the ninth inning. Den Hartog doubled with one out and came home on an RBI double from Martinez, with Bueno closing out the scoring with a two-run double.
Den Hartog, Bueno, Martinez and Navarro all had a pair of hits on the day for the Falcons.