A 9-2 win over visiting Pasadena City College, coupled with an East Los Angeles College loss on Saturday, the Cerritos College baseball team is now in a tie for first place in the South Coast Conference. The Falcons (18-10, 11-4) completed their sweep of the Lancers, while the Huskies (19-9, 11-4) were defeated by third place El Camino, causing a tie at the top. El Camino and Long Beach City College are both a game out of first place with six SCC games remaining.

Cerritos, winners of four in a row and nine of their last 10 games, will now start a three-game series with fifth place Mt. San Antonio College at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday at Kincaid Field.

In the win over PCC, the Falcons broke open a 3-2 lead with three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning and then put the game out of reach with three more in the bottom of the eighth inning. The Lancers committed five errors on the day, which led to five of the runs being unearned.

In the sixth inning, sophomore first baseman Jose Romero (Whittier HS) led off with a base hit and was advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt. Freshman second baseman Justin Walsh (Katella HS), who came on in the fifth inning, singled home Romero before sophomore outfielder Jose Ayala (Maywood Academy HS) followed with a single. That chased starting pitcher Zach Britt (1-5) in favor of John Flores. Sophomore catcher Chris Carrillo (St. Paul HS/San Jose State University) greeted him with an RBI single, with freshman outfielder Kyle Carpenter (Mayfair HS) rounding out the scoring with a run-scoring base hit.

The offense was enough for sophomore starting pitcher Jared Robinson (Bishop Amat HS), who pitched the first 6 1/3 innings to earn the win. Both of the runs allowed by Robinson (7-3) were unearned, while he struck out five batters. Sophomore Elpidio Martin (Lynwood HS) tossed the final 1 2/3 innings to earn his fifth same of the year.

Three Pasadena City errors led the three runs in the eighth inning for the Falcons. Walsh reached base on a fielding error to lead off the stanza, with Ayala following with s single. Sophomore outfielder Johnny Martinez (Katella HS) brought home the first run when his ground ball was mishandled, with Carpenter collecting an RBI on a sacrifice bunt that was dropped on the throw to first base. Sophomore third baseman Hayden Stevens (Katella HS) drove in the final run of the game with a base hit up the middle.

Photos by Daryl Peterson