Eduardo Miranda
The Daily Independent
The Cerro Coso baseball team bounced back for an 8-3 win over Southwestern Community College on Saturday to split the back-to-back games. The Coyotes lost the first game on Friday, 15-5 to the Jaguars but overcame their struggle on the mound and found their offense in the win. Head Coach Justus Scott spoke on his team's bounce back win and what it means in a young season.
"A much better win and it's not just winning a baseball game, and how well we played today," he said. "It's coming back from last night, struggling on the mound last night, and how our demeanor was. We didn't play good baseball last night plus we didn't act right. It's a good day after a comeback win.
"It means something especially early in the year. There are a couple of things you look for one is a comeback win early and we had that against West Hills, and the other thing is how do you bounce back after a tough day and tough game. It's the marking of a good team and this is a good team, we have to be consistent playing baseball especially on the mound."
In the loss on Friday, Cerro Coso struggled on the mound but that was not what happened on Saturday with the Coyotes getting a much better performance from the five pitchers on the day. Clayton Detherage started on the mound and went one inning giving up two runs with one earned on two hits. He had two strikeouts and a walk. Romeo Rodriguez earned the win with one earned run on three hits in two innings. He had one strikeout. Jacob Ortiz went a scoreless two innings giving up two hits and two strikeouts. Jax Holzem pitched two scoreless innings giving up two hits with a walk and two strikeouts. Jake Ridding closed the game throwing two scoreless innings giving up a hit and striking out two batters.
Scott added the improvement on pitching allowed his team's bat to better as his hitters are better when the game is close. With an offensive unit such as the Coyotes, keeping the game close allows them to score runs as its tougher to hit when you are trailing.
Cerro Coso continue its home stand with a doubleheader with Porterville on Thursday with the first pitch of the first game at noon and the second game at 3 p.m. The Coyotes host Santa Barbara on Saturday with the first pitch at 1 p.m. before traveling to Santa Barbara on Tuesday.
In the top of the first inning, the Coyotes gave up two runs with the first on an error from Dominic Lopez on his throw to first and an RBI walk with the bases loaded with Detherage on the mound. Cerro Coso tied the game in the bottom of the inning with Holzem getting on base with a hit and scoring after an RBI triple from Brentt Olmo. Hunter Bagshaw hit a sacrifice fly to left field to bring Olmo home.
The top of the second, Rodriguez got the first two batters to ground out to Bagshaw and Jonluke Hobdy, then gave up a hit, and got the final out on a ground out to Hobdy. In the bottom of the inning, the Coyotes scored two more runs. Raymond Velez and Dominic Lopez both got on base with back-to-back hits. Jordan Massis hit an RBI double to score a run, and Blake Tablazon hit a sacrifice fly to left field to score the second run of the inning.
Cerro Coso led 4-2 going into the third inning with Rodriguez on the mound. He tagged the first batter he faced, got the next to flyout to Jordan Chatman at right field, and gave up a double. Southwestern scored on a hit, and Rodriguez got the final two outs with a strikeout and the defense picking off the runner trying to steal second. In the bottom of the inning, Olmo started with a leadoff triple with a Jaguar error. Bagshaw hit a two-run home run to left field for a 6-3 lead.
Cerro Coso and Southwestern went four scoreless innings from the fourth to the eighth inning. In the bottom of the fourth, Cerro Coso left the bases loaded, had the side retired in the fifth, left two runners in scoring position in the sixth, and left a runner on base in the seventh.
In the top of the eighth, Ridding was on the mound and got the first two runners to pop out to Tablazon at shortstop. He gave up a single to the next batter and got the final out with a groundball to Hobdy, who made the throw to first. The Coyotes added two more runs with Tablazon and Ridding both getting on base via walk. Olmo hit a single to load the bases and Bagshaw hit an RBI single to score Tablazon. Hobdy hit a sacrifice fly to left field to bring Ridding home for a 8-3 lead.
Ridding went out to close the eighth inning and retired the side. He struck out the lead batter, got the next to hit a pop up to Hobdy, and struck out the third batter.