Looking for a combination of more offense and shut-down pitching, the Cerritos College baseball team was able to take an early lead and then limited Fullerton College to just two runs in their second meeting of the season. However, on Saturday in Fullerton, the Hornets were able to escape with a 2-1 decision, dropping the Falcons record to 0-2 early in the season. The team will look for their first win when they travel to West Los Angeles College on Tuesday in a 2:00 p.m.game.

In the top of the first inning, freshman outfielder Julian Francois (Serra HS) led off with a walk and stole second base. With one out, Francois swiped third base and then scored on an infield ground out by freshman outfielder Moses Dokes (Santa Barbara HS).

That would turn out to be the lone run of the game for the Falcons, who turned to freshman J'amore' Ward (Gahr HS) to shut down a Hornets team with scored 12 times in their first encounter. After escaping the first inning where he hit two batters, but was bailed out by an inning ending double play, Ward once again was able to work out of a jam after hitting another batter in the second inning and left a pair of runners on base when he struck out Garet Crenshaw to end the inning.

Fullerton pushed single runs across the plate in the third and fourth innings, with the second run coming in on a bases loaded walk. For the second time in the game, it was a double play that got Ward out of a potential situation.

At the plate, the Falcons advanced just one runner to second base after their first-inning run, and it came in the eighth inning. Freshman first baseman Sawyer Chesley (Laguna Beach HS) reached on an error to lead off the inning, and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by freshman Lucas Iorgulescu (Marina HS). Pinch-runner Jasson Velez (St. Paul HS) was then stranded, as Cerritos could not push the tying run across the plate.

Chesley collected two of the team's three hits, while Ward (0-1) lasted six innings and struck out four batters while surrendering just two hits. Relief pitcher Carter Stoddard (Sunny Hills HS) struck out all three batters he faced.