By Carlos Alvarez
With this loss, 4-1 against Los Angeles Harbor College on April 18, Huskies are eliminated from playoff contention.
“We have been consistently bad all season long. This loss was no different,” ELAC Head Coach James Hines said.
With the loss, the Huskies overall record falls to 12-21, 6-12 in the South Coast Conference. Harbor’s record moves to 17-16, 7-11 in SCC play.
For the first time since the 2010 season, ELAC will finish with a losing conference and overall record. ELAC finishes its season with a three-game series against El Camino College starting on the road on April 21.
The lone bright spot for ELAC was sophomore starting pitcher Sergio Lopez, who kept Harbor batters off-balance with his fastball and curveball combination. Lopez pitched six solid innings allowing one run (unearned) and four hits.
“I was just attacking the zone with all my pitches. I was trying to give us a chance to win,” Lopez said.
In the top of the sixth inning, Harbor took advantage of freshman third baseman Shun Tsunoda’s throwing error to take a 1-0 lead.
In the top of the ninth inning, Harbor added another run to take a 4-1 lead.
“He’s (Lopez) pitching great and we can’t make a routine play. Every game we have made an error. think it’s a school record. It’s frustrating when we can’t back him up,” Hines said.
Harbor’s offense was led by sophomore third baseman Nico Padovan. Padovan had four hits in five at-bats with a run batted in.
Harbor sophomore starting pitcher Javier Alvarez matched Lopez pitch-by-pitch holding ELAC scoreless in six and two-thirds innings.
“Alvarez pitched good, but all season long our batters haven’t had much of a plan when they’re up to bat,” Hines said.
According to Hines, this season he has a group of guys that don’t understand accountability, commitment. Hines went on to add that it has been hard putting together a consistent lineup all season.
“The sad thing is that when we make the lineup, it’s like pulling names out of a hat,” Hines said.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Tsunoda led off with a double. He would go on to score the lone run for the Huskies. Tsunoda was two-for-three at the plate with a double.
“I was just trying to have good at-bats. I was trying to make up for my throwing error early in the game,” Tsunoda said.
In the top of the ninth inning, Harbor added another run to take 4-1 lead. ELAC went down in order in the bottom half of the inning.
“Even though the season is lost we are still trying to win. It has been a tough season. We still have three games left to try and win,” Lopez said.