Eduardo Miranda
The Daily Independent
The Cerro Coso baseball team hosted Chaffey on Wednesday, April 19th after the game was rescheduled due to high winds. This turned the first two games of a three series into back-to-back for the Coyotes and Panthers. The Coyotes dropped both games to the Panthers losing at home on Wednesday 8-3, and on the road Thursday 11-2. The final game of the series will be played at Cerro Coso on Saturday with the first pitch at 1 p.m. Head Coach Justus Scott spoke on his team's performance following Wednesday's loss.
"It was a rough one especially early," he said. "We settled down a little bit. Against a good team when you get the chance to make outs, even if it's not a routine play you have to make them. We didn't in the first couple of innings and that got us behind. They have a really good pitching staff. It's hard to come back, not that it can't be done, its hard against that staff to comeback when you're behind a few runs."
Knowing they would face them again the next day, Scott spoke on what he expected to see from his team as they tried to bounce back and get a road win on Thursday.
"Well tomorrow from a baseball standpoint we have to be more aggressive at the plate offensively. They ran all over us today. We have to control the running game better and that won't change," he said. "They will try to do that tomorrow. But we have been playing well on the road, and we have been playing really well as the series gets deeper so we are still feeling really good. We just have to go get one tomorrow."
In the home loss the Coyotes had Clayton Detherage on the mound to start. He threw three innings giving up five runs with two earned on four hits. He faced a total of 18 batters striking out five and walking one. Aidan Johnson came on to relief pitch going three scoreless innings where he gave up three hits. He faced 12 batters and struck out three with a walk. Moises Soriano was called upon and he threw 1.1 innings giving up three runs with one earned on four hits. He faced seven batters with 0 strikeouts and walks. Levi Graham was called to close the game throwing 1.2 scoreless innings with three hits. He faced seven batters and struck out two with 0 walks.
The Coyotes offense had 33 at bats with three runs scored on nine hits and three RBIs. They had two extra base hits from Jordan Boman and Jax Holzem. As a team Cerro Coso had two walks, seven strikeouts, and left seven runners stranded.
The Coyotes saw the Panthers score a run from back-to-back doubles in the first inning. They had another run scored on them in the second off a hit and a Coyote error in the top of the second. Cerro Coso responded with a sacrifice fly from Dominic Lopez to bring home Holzem to cut the deficit to 2-1 in the bottom of the second. Chaffey extended its lead over the Coyotes in the third scoring three runs on a Coyote error. In the top of the eight, Chaffey scored a run from double with a Coyote error. The next run was scored on a wild pitch and then another Chaffey double. In the bottom of the inning the Coyotes scored on a sacrifice fly from Hunter Bagshaw and an RBI double from Luigi Reyes with a Panther error.
In the road game, Cerro Coso had Stephen Moraski on the mound throw six innings giving up eight runs all earned on 13 hits. He faced 34 batters and struck out one and walked three. Jacob Ortiz threw an inning giving up three runs all earned on two hits. He faced eight batters with two walks and a strikeout. Bobby Rosado threw a scoreless inning where he faced five batters striking out two and walking one.
The Coyotes offense had 29 at bats scoring two runs on four hits with two RBIs. The Coyotes left six runners stranded. They had 10 batter's strikeout and three walk in nine innings.
The Coyotes began the game with a home run from Brentt Olmo but Chaffey responded scoring a run in the bottom of the first. The Panthers scored three runs in the bottom of the third and the Coyotes responded by scoring a run in the top of the fourth when Holzem grounded out but brough Olmo home. Chaffey scored two runs in the sixth and four more in the seventh.