In their final game of the season, the Cerritos College baseball team posted a 4-1 non-conference win over visiting Ventura College on Friday at Kincaid Field. Paced by six shutout innings from freshman John Chavez (St. John Bosco HS) and a pair of solo home runs from sophomore shortstop Trevor McInerney (Cerritos HS/El Camino College), the Falcons (8-29) avoided finishing the season with the worst record in school history. The team went 7-29 in 2012.

Making his first start after 18 relief appearances, Chavez (1-0) worked out of a first-and-third situation in the first inning, as well as getting Jacob Harris to fly out to end the fourth inning with the bases loaded. Although he had just one 1-2-3 inning, Chavez was able to keep the Pirates (25-15) off the board for the first six innings. Sophomore Aaron Paek (Sunny Hills HS/Hope International University) came on in the seventh inning and limited Ventura to just two hits and an unearned run to pick up his first save of the season.

McInerney got the scoring started for the Falcons in the bottom of the first inning with his seventh home run of the season. Cerritos added a pair of unearned runs in the third inning, thanks to three Ventura errors. Freshman outfielder Wyatt Hall (Long Beach Millikan HS) led off by reaching base on a fielding error, and after he stole second base, beat the throw to third on a ground ball by McInerney. Another infield fielding error brought home the first run of the game, with a throwing error on a fielder's choice accounting for the second run.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, McInerney launched his eighth home run of the season to drive in the final run of the game. The eight home runs in a season were the most since Trevor Blood hit eight back in the 2008 season.

Photos by Daryl Peterson