The Cerritos College baseball team withstood several threats in their South Coast Conference game against visiting Pasadena City College on Tuesday. But a trio of Falcon pitchers were able to escape the situations and went on to post a 4-2 win. The win over the Lancers (4-20, 1-12) allows Cerritos (16-10, 9-4) to stay within a game of first place. The second game of this series will be Thursday at 2:00 p.m. at Jackie Robinson Field.

Freshman starting pitcher Kyle Carpenter (Mayfair HS) did not have his best stuff on the day, and found himself looking at Pasadena City baserunners in all five innings in which he appeared. The first three batters reached base in the top of the second and third innings, but a double play limited the Lancers to just one run in the second and no runs in the third inning. 

In the fifth inning, PCC took a 2-1 lead after Eric Grajeda and Bobby Fraijo singled to lead off the stanza, with Jimmy Cramer drawing a walk to load the bases with no outs. A sacrifice fly by PJ DeZotell drove in the second run of the game, while Carpenter posted the second out with a fielder's choice. Sophomore Jonathan Grana (Downey HS) came on to record the third out of the inning and retired the side in order in the sixth inning. He allowed a hit and walk in the seventh, but nothing came of it, while he surrendered a pair of hits in the eighth before coming out in favor of freshman Joe Fernandez (La Habra HS), who earned his second save after setting own all four batters he faced.

After taking an early 1-0 lead on an RBI double by sophomore outfielder Jared Robinson (Bishop Amat HS) in the first inning, the Falcons regained the lead with a pair of runs in the sixth inning. Sophomore third baseman Hayden Stevens (Katella HS) led off with a bunt single. Sophomore first baseman Jose Romero (Whittier HS) attempted to sacrifice Stevens to second base, but Lancer pitcher Jason Marquez (1-5) threw wildly trying to cut down Stevens. It allowed both runners to advance a base, which set up RBI singles by freshman shortstop Daniel Lopez (Montebello HS) and freshman second baseman Victor Guadalupe (La Quinta HS).

Cerritos added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth inning when sophomore outfielder Jose Ayala (Maywood Academy HS) reached base on a throwing error and stole second base. Sophomore catcher Chris Carrillo (St. Paul HS/San Jose State University) singled to right field and when they tried to cut down Ayala at the plate, first baseman John Sevilla threw the ball away, which allowed Carrillo to advance to second base.

Photos by Daryl Peterson