By Robert Barrett
The baseball team traveled to face the Cerritos College Falcons
on Saturday and won a season series on the road for the third
straight week. With the series tied, 1-1, and
the summer-like sun beating down on the field, Chris Reyes took the
mound for the Huskies. In an excellent performance,
Reyes won his third game in a row, pitching his third straight
complete game. After this outing, Reyes boasts
the lowest ERA in conference play at 0.69.
“He dominated from the start of the game to the end of the game,”
said Head Coach James Hines. Reyes got offensive support from
his team right away. In the top of the first inning,
Ruben Ramirez got a base hit then stole a base to put himself in
scoring position. After a wild pitch by Cerritos
pitcher Kevin Hendrix, Ramirez scored the first run of the game.
That one run in the first inning was enough to secure the win for
the Huskies because Reyes only a l l o w e d f o u r
hits, striking out seven and shutting out the home team.
The Huskies did not rely on that one run to hold up and
gave Reyes some insurance runs throughout the game.
East Los Angeles College ended the game with 11 base
hits, including three from Frank Martinez and a two-run double
from sophomore Arnold Banuelos. The Falcons had no
response for Reyes. Behind solid defense and good pitching,
the Huskies cruised to a 6-0 victory, taking the season
series, 2-1. T h e s e r i e s c o u l d h a v e b e e n v e r y
different for the Huskies. In the first game of the s e r i e s o n
M a r c h 2 9 , E L A C d i d not take the lead until the
bottom of the ninth. With the game tied, 3-3, and Martin Rodriguez
waiting on second base after being hit by a pitch and an intentional walk
to Ricardo Arias, Martinez singled in the winning run giving ELAC
the win at Cal State Los Angeles. The momentum from the gameone
win did not carry over to the second game of the series at
Cerritos College. With the field well over 95 degrees, ELAC committed five
errors in the first four innings. “We won the error game. We
made five errors, and they made none. We won that part of the
game,” said Hines. Cerritos took an early lead due in
large part to the defensive miscues by the Huskies, and they held onto
it for most of the game. ELAC eventually struck in the seventh inning when Andy Salcido
doubled, advancing Arias from first to third base. Banuelos then singled in Arias
for ELAC’s first run. After seven innings Cerritos was ahead 3-1.
The Huskies had a final chance to steal the game in the eighth.
With ELAC trailing 3-2, the bases were loaded when Salcido
hit a hard shot to center field that resulted in the final out of the
inning. ELAC put one runner on base in the ninth inning but were unable to
score a run, resulting in a 3-2 loss. This series win puts ELAC right
in the middle of the pack in the South Coast Conference standings.
With nine conference games remaining, ELAC is one game back of SCC-leading Long Beach
College. ELAC’s next series started yesterday against El Camino
College, but scores were not available before press time.
El Camino, which Husky fans think should make for an easy
sweep due to their 3-9 conference record, is not being over-looked by the Huskies.
“They were a state final four team last year, and they returned
many of their players,” said Hines. ELAC has an overall record of
14-10 and a conference record of 7-5. ELAC hosts EL Camino on
Thursday at Cal State L.A. at 7p.m. The Huskies will then travel to
El Camino for Saturday’s game at noon and try to close their fourth
straight series with a win. Editor’s note: The photograph
is of Cameron Baker pitching at Cerritos College on Thursday.
rbarrette@elaccampusnews.com