It was a short lead for the Cerritos College baseball team in their South Coast Conference game on Thursday at El Camino College. The Falcons scored once in the top of the fifth inning, but saw the Warriors come back to tie the game in the bottom of the stanza, while El Camino pushed the eventual game-winning run across the plate in the eighth inning and came away with a 2-1 decision. The loss by Cerritos drops them to 13-19 overall and 8-9 in SCC play, while they will look to salvage one game in their three-game series against the Warriors (17-15, 9-8) at noon on Satirday at Kincaid Field.

With only two hits to speak of against Rafael Ramirez (8-3) heading into the top of the fifth inning, freshman designated hitter Zach Diaz (Highland HS) and freshman first baseman Jose Romero (Whittier HS) recorded consecutive singles with one out in the inning. A single by freshman outfielder Joseph Rivera (Savanna HS) loaded the bases, with thoughts of a big inning.

A successful sacrifice bunt by freshman outfielder Jose Ayala (Maywood Academy HS) resulted in a run, but freshman catcher Taylor Cavazos (Diamond Bar HS) filed out to end the inning.

Sophomore pitcher Sebastian Frutos (Bellflower HS), who pitched the first seven innings, saw one of his six walks come back to hurt him in the bottom of the fifth inning. Tony Poncia drew a walk to open the stanza and after stealing second base, advanced to third on a wild pitch. With one out, Daniel Timmerman doubled home Poncia for the tying run. Frutos walked a pair of Warriors in the first inning and escaped a bases loaded jam, while two more free passes in the third resulted in ECC leaving two more runners on base.

The Falcons didn't threatened to score the rest of the game, but witnessed El Camino scoring the game-winning run in the eighth inning. Freshman Christian Smith (Garden Grove HS) came on in the eighth inning and allowed a lead-off single and a one-out walk. After the second out was recorded, Rex Calkins singled in the go-ahead run, which was enough to win the game for the Warriors. Smith (2-4) took the loss for Cerritos.

Photo by Daryl Peterson