Baseball strays from playoff hopes

By Tiana Hunter

Baseball faced a tough loss to Santa Ana College on Friday, 11-5.

East Los Angeles College’s pitching was a major problem after the third inning and one of the reasons they lost. Pitching started out with freshman Adrian Cardenas, but they would go through six pitchers in this game.

“The arm felt good coming off extra days rest, but I started missing my locations a little bit, started leaving the ball up and that’s when they (Santa Ana) started hitting the ball,” said Cardenas.

The top of the third inning was trouble for ELAC and is when Santa Ana scored its most runs. Due to Santa Ana players connecting with the ball well, they scored eight runs in this inning even though ELAC switched out two pitchers. ELAC wouldn’t get on base until the fourth inning where another struggle would be seen.

Throughout the game, ELAC would have the bases loaded but no one would score a run. ELAC would leave a total of 14 players on base throughout the nine innings they played. “We didn’t help ourselves. We left some guys on base in key situations and could’ve closed the gap. That’s the disappointing part when you strike out and have runners in scoring position especially with bases loaded. We didn’t put the ball in play,” said head coach James Hines.

During the fourth inning ELAC would get on base with hits and walks. ELAC’s first score would come from bases being loaded and freshman infielder Oscar Osorio III getting hit by the ball, forcing a run. The next two scores during this inning would come when sophomore Kyle Francis hit a line drive between third base and shortstop.

This brought in two more ELAC players before the inning was over. By the sixth inning the score was 11-3, ELAC was down and struggled once again to get players home but also pitching wise. “Our pitching hasn’t come through the way I think it should be coming through for us. Our approach to pitching hasn’t really been good and guys we’ve usually counted on just come into games and don’t perform at a high level that we’re used to expecting from them,” said Hines.

Scoring only one run by the bottom of the sixth inning, the gap was still big 11-4. In the last two innings, ELAC fought back offensively, hitting balls between Santa Ana players and getting on base.

ELAC scored its last run after Santa Ana pitcher freshman Braeden Wallace hit three players back to back giving ELAC loaded bases. When Santa Ana head coach Tom Nilles finally switched out pitchers, ELAC would score once again because of a walk from Santa Ana pitcher freshman Josh Ludeman. “We have to do a lot more things solidly regarding to playing defense because if we can put together two facets of our game and play them at a high level, we’ll be in games pretty good,” said Hines.

ELAC played yesterday against Pasadena City College away but lost, 16-1. They didn’t score until the top of the third inning with an RBI from freshman third baseman Matthew Sosa. “I know these past couple games have been rough, but I am certain that we will leave it all on the field these last four games. We’ll bounce back on Thursday,” said Sosa.

ELAC’s errors in the fifth and sixth innings caused them to give Pasadena City College nine points, overall having 12 runs at the bottom of the sixth inning. Like Friday’s game, ELAC would leave many players on base. A total of nine players were left on base throughout the nine innings ELAC played. They are now on a four-game losing streak.

ELAC is still technically in contention for the playoffs and will have to win the next four games in the conference. In the Allan Hancock Spring Classic Tournament , ELAC lost the last two games to Merced Community College 5-4 and Canyons Community College 10-7.

This tournament does not affect the Huskies chances of making playoffs. The next four games of the South Coast Conference-North is Pasadena City College twice and Cerritos College two times also. ELAC will play again here at home, Thursday at 6 p.m. against Pasadena City College.