After spotting Pasadena City College a 3-0 lead in the first inning, the Cerritos College baseball team responded with a five-run fourth inning, en route to a 9-5 South Coast Conference win on Thursday. The Falcons (17-10, 10-4) remain one game out of first place and will host the Lancers (4-21, 1-13) at noon on Saturday at Kincaid Field.

A pair of errors assisted Pasadena City in taking a 3-0 lead off sophomore starting pitcher Dylan Algra (Valley Christian HS). He settled down and retired the next eight Lancer batters, while his defense came through for Algra (5-3) in the fourth inning. A defensive miscue kept the inning alive for PCC, but on a base hit that looked to score a run, sophomore left fielder Jose Ayala (Maywood Academy HS) threw our Kai Nakamura at the plate to end the inning.

Offensively, the Falcons took advantage of a pair of PCC errors in their five-run fourth inning. After a single by sophomore third baseman Hayden Stevens (Katella HS), a pair of errors enabled Cerritos to score a pair of runs. A walk to Ayala, with sophomore catcher Chris Carrillo (St. Paul HS/San Jose State University) getting hit by a pitch kept the inning alive, as the bases were now loaded. Sophomore outfielder Johnny Martinez (Katella HS) brought in a run when he was walked, while sophomore shortstop Daniel Lopez (Montebello HS) was hit by a pitch for another run. Tim Shiba came in to pitch and he walked sophomore Jared Robinson (Bishop Amat HS) for the fifth run of the inning.

Ayala drove in a run in the seventh inning, while Carrillo picked up an RBI in the ninth inning. Lopez finished off the scoring with a two-run single to give the Falcons a four-run lead. The Falcons collected nine hits and drew nine walks against seven Pasadena City pitchers.