Baseball: Late rally not enough in Falcons first loss

File Photo: Nick Martinez was one of 11 players who had a hit against Glendale
File Photo: Nick Martinez was one of 11 players who had a hit against Glendale

Suffering their first loss of the season, the Cerritos College baseball team made a late run that came up short in a 9-5 decision against host Glendale College on Saturday. Leading 3-0 after the top of the fourth inning, the Falcons (6-1) saw the Vaqueros (6-2) score the next nine runs of the game to take the lead. Cerritos scored twice in the eighth inning and left three runners on base over the final two innings.

Cerritos will finish their suspended game against Golden West College on Tuesday at 1:00 p.m. at Kincaid Field before their regularly scheduled 2:00 p.m. game. At the time of the suspension, the Falcons led, 11-8 after eight complete innings.

In the top of the fourth inning, sophomore third baseman Richard Castro (Bishop Amat HS/Cal State San Bernardino) led off by getting hit by a pitch and advanced to third base on a single by freshman designated hitter David Hays (St. John Bosco HS). With one out, sophomore first baseman Nicholas Martinez (La Serna HS) broke the scoreless game with an RBI single, followed by a run-scoring double from sophomore outfielder Shea Estrin (West Torrance HS). With two outs, sophomore outfielder Buck Anderson (Lakewood HS/Cal State Bakersfield) reached on an error, with Martinez scoring. After Anderson stole second base, the Falcons had runners at second and third, but freshman second baseman Andres Vega (Mary Star of the Sea HS) struck out to end the inning.

Prior to the fourth inning, sophomore starting pitcher Andrew Arguello (La Serna HS/Orange Coast College) had allowed just two harmless singles. But the bottom of the fourth resulted in two Glendale runs, thanks to a two-run home run from Aaron Trelaor. Four more runs scored for the Vaqueros before Arguello was replaced by freshman Nathaniel Davalos (Santa Fe HS), who allowed two runs in 2 1/3 innings. Freshman Matt Cabrera (Fullerton HS) tossed the final inning.

After eight straight outs were recorded by Vaquero pitching, sophomore pinch-hitter Matt Den Hartog (Los Alamitos HS) led off the eighth inning with a base hit, and then moved to second base when freshman pinch-hitter Camden Angell (Goodpasture Christian (TN) HS) singled. The bases were then loaded after freshman pinch-hitter Matthew Llanos (Centennial HS) singled, which set the table for the fourth pinch-hitter in a row, freshman Nolan Brown (Long Beach Poly HS). His RBI single kept the inning going, while sophomore catcher Owen Beebe (Long Beach Millikan HS/Golden West College) drove in a run with a sacrifice fly. But that would be all the offense for the Falcons the rest of the game.

As a team, Cerritos slapped out 12 hits, which came from 11 different players. Hays (2-for-3) was the lone player who had a multiple-hit game.