The MSJC baseball team stayed in the hunt for an Inland Empire Athletic Conference championship last week as they won two of three games against Cerro Coso.
The three-game series started in Ridgecrest on Tuesday with the Eagles falling behind early on their way to a 13-10 defeat. The Coyotes jumped ahead 12-2 after five innings and held on despite MSJC rallying for six runs of their own in the top of the seventh. Luke O'Brien had two hits and drove home three in the loss; Steven Felipe added a pair of RBIs. Derek Hurtado picked up two hits.
Rain postponed a scheduled game on Friday setting up a home doubleheader on Saturday for the Eagles.
In game one on Saturday Chad Horton was dominate on the mound for MSJC as he threw a complete game shutout. In the seven-inning game Horton allowed just two hits and struck out six for a 2-0 victory. The Eagles scored a run in the bottom of the third on an infield hit by Ryan Rangel and then added their second run in the bottom of fifth on an RBI double by Matt Rezkalah.
The second game of the day featured a lot more offense with the Eagles completing the doubleheader sweep 13-11. The game started with Cerro Coso scoring three runs in the top of the first, but MSJC immediately answered in the bottom half with six runs of their own. The game was tied after six innings at 7-7 before an explosive seventh inning would decide the outcome. In the top of the inning the Coyotes scored four runs to grab the lead and again were answered by the Eagles as MSJC scored six runs in the bottom half to lead 13-11. The Eagle trio of Jordan Moskal, Slater Theisen, and Saul Fregozo shut down Cerro Coso the rest of the way to preserve the victory. Juni Rodriguez had three RBIs in the game as did Kaden Spencer. O'Brien knocked home two runs; he had three hits including a pair of doubles.
The two wins improved the Eagles overall record on the season to 9-13, they are 6-3 in IEAC games. This week MSJC will be busy as they take on College of the Desert in a three-game series and play a non-conference game at Santa Ana. Tuesday and Saturday the Eagles will be at Desert, Thursday MSJC will host the Roadrunners.