Eduardo Miranda

The Daily Independent

The Cerro Coso baseball team hosted Southwestern Community College in back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday. The Coyotes fell to the Jaguars 15-5 in the first game of a back-to-back and Head Coach Justus Scott spoke on his team's performance in the loss.

"Well not a good game. We are 5-2 and been playing pretty good baseball up to this point and you do have them. You have bad games especially early in the year and today was a bad one for us," he said. "It was all dictated on the mound, this level or any level you can't win baseball games with that many walks, falling behind that many hitters, and especially against good hitting teams. Southwestern is very good. That is a recipe for losing and losing big."

Cerro Coso take the diamond against Southwestern in less than 24 hours with a chance to split the series with the Jaguars. Scott spoke on what he wants to see from his players as they look to bounce back from a bad loss in a short time period.

"I tell our guys that it's not like football where you have to wait a week to play," the Coyotes coach said. "We are right back at it and you have to throw it away. You have to learn from your mistakes, learn from what went wrong, but we are right back at it. It's over, you forget about it, and we will see how we come out and hopefully we come out playing better."

Cerro Coso used five pitchers in nine innings beginning with Moises Soriano on the mound. Soriano did not get out of the first inning after giving up five earned runs on three hits with three walks. Bobby Rosado came on and pitched five innings with three earned runs on three hits. He had three walks and a strikeout. Levi Graham pitched two innings for an earned run on two hits. He walked a batter and gave up a home run. Steven Serate pitched two-thirds of an inning for five earned runs on a hit and four walks. Yadiel Casul came on to finish the game pitching one and one-third innings with an earned run on two hits. He finished with a walk and strikeout.

Southwestern scored five runs in the top of the first inning on two walks with the bases loaded, and a batter hit by a pitch against Soriano. Rosado came on and he gave up a sacrifice fly to right field and a ground out to the shortstop for the final two runs. Brentt Olmo was the only batter to reach base for the Coyotes on a walk.

Cerro Coso and Southwestern did not score in the second and third innings. In the bottom of the second, Luigi Reyes was hit by a pitch to reach base. In the bottom of the third, Blake Tablazon was walked and Jax Holzem hit a single past the second baseman for the Coyotes.

The top of the fourth, Southwestern grounded to the shortstop to score and a wild pitch from Rosado gave the visitors a 7-0 lead before a double play at second to first ended the top of the inning. The Coyotes were able to get on the scoreboard with Jordan Boman reaching first after being hit by a pitch. Reyes hit a single to reach first and move Boman to second. Jonluke Hobdy struck out swinging for the first out, but Cameron Breeze hit a single at his at bat to load the bases. Hunter Bagshaw hit an RBI single for the first run. Jordan Chatman hit an RBI single to score a run but Bagshaw was thrown out at second base. Tablazon hit an RBI single and Holzem followed with another RBI single with two outs. Olmo ended the inning with a line drive to the Southwestern first baseman.

Cerro Coso went into the top of the fifth inning trailing 7-4 but Southwestern scored a run on a RBI single. Hobdy reached first on a single with two outs for the Coyotes in the bottom of the inning.

Trailing 8-4 going into the top of the sixth inning, the Coyotes defense held the Jaguars scoreless. The Coyotes offense began with Bagshaw reaching first after being walked but Chatman flyout to left field. Tablazon went up to bat and hit into a double play to the second baseman for the three outs.

In the seventh inning the Coyotes and Jaguars traded home runs. The leadoff batter hit a home run for the Jaguars off Graham. The Coyotes pitcher recovered to get the next two batters out with him catching a line drive and getting the batter to ground out to the shortstop. After giving up a hit, Graham got the final batter to flyout to right field. For the Coyotes, Holzem hit a leadoff home run over the left field. Olmo followed the home run by getting on base with a hit past the shortstop. Boman flew out to the right field and Reyes hit into a fielder's choice to get Olmo out at second. Hobdy reached first after the Southwestern second baseman error but Cameron Breeze struck out swinging.

In the top of the eighth inning, Southwestern scored two runs on Serate, both coming off walks with the bases loaded. After a pitching change from the Coyotes, the Jaguars scored on a walk, a two-run single, and a single on Casul. In the bottom of the inning, the Coyotes watched the side be retired and tailing 15-5.

Cerro Coso and Southwestern did not score in the ninth inning. The home team had leadoff batter Holzem reach base after being hit by the first pitch, and Raymond Velez was hit by a pitch at his first at bat. With runners on first and second, Boman struck out swinging, Dominic Lopez hit a single to load the bases. Hobdy hit a long line drive to right field for the second out and Breeze went up and struck out watching for the final out.