Baseball: Loss drops team out of first place

Kenton McDonald went 3-for-4 in the Falcons loss
Kenton McDonald went 3-for-4 in the Falcons loss

After losing 9-6 to visiting Los Angeles Harbor College on Tuesday, the Cerritos College baseball team has dropped out of a tie for first place in the South Coast Conference. Coupled with their loss and the win by Long Beach City College, the Falcons (22-12, 14-5) are now a game behind the Vikings with two left in the regular season. Cerritos will travel to Wilmington on Thursday to take on the Seahawks (12-22, 8-11). The loss also snapped a six-game home winning streak.

A couple of big innings by LA Harbor were too much for the Falcons to overcome. They trailed 5-0 heading into the bottom of the third inning, and trimmed into their deficit on a two-run home run by sophomore shortstop Daniel Lopez (Montebello HS). Cerritos got as close as 5-4 until the Seahawks put four runs on the board in the top of the sixth inning for a 9-4 lead.

With runners on second and third and two outs, freshman relief pitcher Carlos Hernandez (Pioneer HS) intentionally walked Joseph Argumendo to load the bases and face Adrian Perez. Two innings earlier, Hernandez got Perez to pop up with the bases loaded and end the inning. This time, Perez was able to drop a two-strike base hit into right field that scored a pair of runs. Sophomore relief pitcher Travis Bonner (Cabrillo HS) came on and surrendered a two-run single to Cody Lavender to account for the other two runs.

The Falcons were able to push across a run in the eighth inning when sophomore outfielder Fermin Beza (California HS/William Jessup University) led off with a double and scored on a base hit by sophomore outfielder Kenton McDonald (Long Beach Poly HS). In the ninth inning, Lopez led off with a single, moved to second base on a walk to sophomore outfielder Mark Pena (Bell Gardens HS). On a wild pitch that moved the runners up, Argumendo threw the ball into left field from his catcher's position, which allowed Lopez to score. Cerritos ended the game with runners on first and third.