Eduardo Miranda
The Daily Independent
After sweeping its three-game series over Barstow, the Cerro Coso baseball team hosted Mt. San Jacinto in Inland Empire Athletic Conference action in the midst of a three-game winning streak. The Coyotes used a huge outburst of eight runs in the fifth inning to hold off the Eagles and secure a 13-10 home win and take the first game of the series.
"Welcome to junior college baseball! There is always a tendency on both sides for something like this to happen, and I think it's because its such an emotional rollercoaster with these guys at this age," said head coach Justus Scott on the win. "Sometimes when good happens, it's really good; when bad happens, it's really bad. But Carson Lee came in the seventh in that six-run inning for them and did a great job. We just made defensive miscues that led to a few runs but that was a great game for us."
The Cerro Coso offense finished with 37 at-bats for 13 runs on 14 hits with 10 RBIs. The Coyotes left 10 runners stranded, had eight batters walk, and six batters strike out. Kyle Phin led the team with four RBIs with two hits and one run scored including a home run. Dariel Rios had two RBIs with two hits and two runs scored. Andrew Bain had two RBIs with a hit and a run scored. Isaac Martinez had an RBI with three hits and three runs scored. Stephen Landez had an RBI with two hits and one run scored.
On the mound, the Coyotes started Luis De Los Santos, who threw five innings, giving up two earned runs on three hits. He faced 21 batters and walked three and struck out seven. Jacob Victory was the first out of the bullpen and threw an inning, giving up four runs, all earned, on three hits. He faced eight batters and walked one. Carson Lee threw an inning, giving up two earned runs on one hit. He faced five batters, striking out two and walking one. Cayden Johnson threw a scoreless inning where he faced four batters and struck out two. Kanon Welbourne closed the game throwing the final inning, giving up two runs with one earned on two hits. He faced six batters, striking out one and walking one.
Cerro Coso jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first behind a two-run home run from Phin and Landez scoring Rios on a base hit. In the top of the fourth, the visitors scored two runs with two outs to cut the deficit to one. The home team responded with a base hit from Phin to score Martinez.
Bottom of the fifth, leading 4-2, Cerro Coso got a leadoff double from Yadiel Casul and then Bain got to second base and Casul scored on an error from the Eagles. Landez got a hit to get on base, and a wild pitch moved him to second and allowed Bain to score for a 6-2 lead. An error allowed Deri Steiert-Couture to reach first and allowed Landez to score. Martinez got a hit to score Deri Steiert-Couture for an 8-2 lead. Phin hit a sacrifice fly to center field to score Ariel Rodriguez and move Martinez to second. Rios went up and executed a successful bunt to reach first and score Martinez. Phin hit a sacrifice ball with the bases loaded for a 9-2 lead. Rios got a hit to Martinez and Bain got a hit to score Boman. The Coyotes led 12-2 after six innings.
In the top of the seventh, Mt. San Jacinto made a final push for the lead beginning with a leadoff triple followed by back-to-back hits to score two runs. That led to Scott visiting the mound and calling for Lee to take over. He walked the first batter he faced to load the bases, and then recovered to strike out the next two. But an error by the Coyotes led to an inside-the-park grand slam that cut the lead to 13-8.
The Eagles added their final two runs in the top of the ninth with a leadoff home run and with two outs got two hits for a run to cut the lead to three, 13-10. But Welbourne got the final out on a routine groundball to secure the 13-10 win.
Scott said on the eight runs in the fifth, "that guy they brought in at the end of the first, he was good. He was going after us with the fastball and it took us a few times through the lineup to get going. But that fifth inning was the difference in the game."
Cerro Coso closes the series with a road doubleheader against the Eagles on Saturday. Scott spoke on what he told his team about playing back-to-back road games and keeping the momentum from winning the last four games.
"We play clean defense and they only have four or five runs, but it's hard at this level to play clean defense for nine innings," he said. "Will take one or two per game instead of four or five like they had. But now you are on the road; its always great to take the first one. If we get out of there with a split, it's a good series.
"It's just keep playing good baseball, and Lou had his best outing today. It's about throwing strikes, playing very good defense, and we are going to hit. It may not happen in the first couple of innings but they will be hard pressed to shut us down for nine. Just defense and throwing strikes."
The Coyotes end the series at Mt. San Jacinto with the first pitch at 11 a.m. The Coyotes then face Victor Valley in a three-game series beginning on the road on Tuesday. First pitch is 2:30 p.m.