Eduardo Miranda
The Daily Independent
The Cerro Coso baseball team was coming off a 9-2 road win over Porterville, and looked for the series sweep when the two met on the Coyotes' field. After falling behind 2-0 in the top of the third, the Coyotes made the necessary adjustments to overcome the Pirates for 9-3 win and earn the sweep.
"The time of the year it's good," said head coach Justus Scott on the win. "The pile-up of wins and start getting on a roll, conference next week, and we are kind of steadily getting there. We are playing better baseball and better baseball, and by no means are we perfect right now especially defensively. But it's good to keep it rolling."
The Coyotes' offense had 34 at-bats for nine runs on 11 hits with seven RBIs. The team had four batters walk and 10 strikeouts plus left six runners stranded. Andrew Bain led the team with three RBIs on two hits for two runs on four at-bats. Kyle Phin had two RBIs from a team-high three hits for three runs on five plate appearances including a two-run home run and was a single away from a cycle. Dariel Rios had two RBIs on a hit in four at-bats.
Andre Carrillo started on the mound throwing 4.1 innings, giving up two hits and two runs with one earned for the win. He walked three batters and struck out six. Carson Lee came on for 0.2 scoreless innings. Jacob Victory threw three innings, giving up one hit for one earned run. He walked a batter and struck out three. Chase Cummins closed the game throwing a scoreless inning and striking out one batter.
The first two innings saw both pitchers dominate the batters with both getting the first three batters out. In the second, Carrillo walked the first batter but was able to strike out out the second, get the third to ground out, and strike out the fourth.
The Pirates scored first in the top of the third, after Carrillo walked the leadoff batter and the ensuing batter reached first on a bunt. He recovered and got the next batter to ground out to Rios. But he walked the ensuing batter and threw a wild pitch that catcher Lauren Binney was unable to block for the first run of the game. The next batter got a hit on Carrillo but reached first on an error from Rios and scored a run. Carrillo closed the inning striking out the next two batters.
The Coyotes' bats came to life in the bottom of the fourth beginning with a leadoff triple from Phin. Bain hit a double to score Phin, and a wild pitch with Binney at bat tied the game at 2-2. The Coyotes took the lead in the bottom of the fifth on a two-run inside-the-park home run from Bain for a 4-2 lead.
Scott said on his team making the adjustments to take the lead, "I like that win. Out of our six so far this is my favorite one because their arm, the guys who started, hasn't been hit much this year. It's probably the best arm we have seen so far; he was good. And we made adjustments in the third inning and it's why I like it. It's a game of adjustments and we did it today at the plate. And I think that is exactly why we were able to score a few in fourth and fifth."
The Pirates cut the Coyotes' lead to one in the top of the sixth. Victory was on the mound and he walked the leadoff batter but recovered and struck out the next two batters. The Pirates got a hit to score and cut the lead to 4-3. The Coyotes responded in the bottom of the same inning with Emiliano Curiel hitting a triple and then scoring a run on an error to restore Cerro Coso's two-run lead, 5-3.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Coyotes' offense secured the home win, scoring four runs. After Isaac Martinez grounded out, Jordan Boman reached first on a walk. That brought Phin up to bat and he hit a two-run home run over the left field fence for a 7-3 lead. Bain struck out after the home run and Binney reached base on a walk and Curiel on a hit. With two runners on, Rios hit a two-run double to extend the Coyotes' lead to 9-3.
In the top of the eighth, Victory received help from his defense to get the three outs with a groundout to Ariel Rodriguez, a flyball to Bain in right field, and the final out was a flyball catch by Rodriguez. Cummins closed the game for the Coyotes and struck out the first batter he faced. He then got the ensuing batter to ground out to Phin at first and the final out was a popped ball to Rios at third.
Scott said on his team's defense to close the game, "that's good because that's what is hurting us a little bit, our defensive play, and we just have to play clean baseball. We don't have a ton of guys that strike out a whole bunch, and when you walk and make errors, you have to strike guys out. Otherwise you have to play clean baseball."
Cerro Coso is set to play back-to-back games beginning by hosting Antelope Valley College on Friday and then visiting Rio Hondo on Saturday. The Coyotes then open Inland Empire Athletic Conference action on Tuesday with a three-game series against Desert.
Looking at what he wants to see from his team going into the next two games, Scott said, "keep it rolling. It would be nice to obviously get the next two, but if we can get one of the next two going into conference, feeling pretty good as far as playing decent baseball."
The Coyotes host the Marauders Friday at 1 p.m.