Huskies Complete Three-Game Sweep of Falcons

by Cerwin D Haynes

Huskies Baseball, after a rough start to the season, is finding their groove at the right time.

Behind 12 hits and a great outing by starting pitcher Francisco Dominguez (1-3), East LA triumphed over Cerritos 9-1 to complete a three-game sweep of the Falcons. ELAC improves to within a game of .500 overall (8-9) while moving up to 4-2 in SCC play.

The offense scored runs in five of their eight innings, led by C Michael Easter who went 3-4 including a double and a triple with 2RBI. More succinctly: if this were a boxing match, one could say the Huskies scored on consistent jabs until they got the opening to land the big knockout blow. The "jabs" were in the bottom of the 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th innings where the ELAC plated one, two, one and one run respectively.

The "knockout blow" came in the home half of the eighth: leading 5-1 with one out, Antonio Gomez approached the plate with Jason Vela at second. Gomez would slice reliever Tony Lendvai's pitch through the infield for a base hit, scoring Vela. After Ruben Hernandez worked out a walk, Easter came up, and would rap a long double into deep left, bringing home Gomez and Hernandez. LF Luis Rojas, the next batter, knocked in an RBI single. He would be thrown out at second trying to advance, but the icing was already on the cake at that point.

HUSKY BITS

• Dominguez pitched seven excellent innings, giving up only one unearned run on six hits and a walk with six strikeouts. Alexander Castellanos came on in relief of the final two frames and only gave up two hits with three K's.
• East LA got good production from the top two of their order. Leadoff hitter/DH Daniel Vierra and CF Jason Vela each went 2-4; Vierra notched an RBI while Vela scored twice.
• RF Eduardo Sanchez also went 2-4, with one RBI and one run scored.
• 3B Antonio Gomez had a hit in two at-bats and walked twice. He also scored twice and added an RBI.
• LF Luis Rojas went 1-4 with 2RBI.

UP NEXT:

The Huskies will have a three-game set next week with LA Harbor. Games will be on Tuesday (Harbor), Thursday (home) and Saturday (Harbor).