Opportunistic Huskies Rally to Clip Falcons, Halt Skid

by Cerwin D Haynes

With over a month left to play, East LA College baseball finds itself in the unenviable position of looking up at almost everyone else in the conference standings, save for LA Harbor. And having lost the last four games - all conference matchups - the Huskies are risking being put in too big of a hole to climb out of.

The first step to reversing their recent fortunes was to get a much-needed conference win tonight versus Cerritos College. Thanks in part to a strong relief outing by freshman P Hector Valdez, East LA (3-9, 10-15) was able to take advantage of enough opportunities to rally from a three-run deficit to clip the Falcons (13-2, 22-5) by a score of 6-5. Freshman LF Felipe De Alba and sophomore 1B Anthony Barron each had 2RBI in the win.

Sophomore RHP Lino Zepeda - who recently returned to action off injury - got the start tonight and had it going through his first three innings, including striking out the side in the second inning. His teammates even spotted him an early 2-0 lead off the strength of a 2-run single to left by Barron in the bottom of the first inning with the bases loaded. Zepeda gave up a run in the fourth, but really ran into trouble in the fifth inning. Cerritos started the frame with a single then an RBI double to deep center to tie the game at 2. After giving up a walk, Zepeda induced the next batter into a groundout to first, but it advanced both Cerritos runners to third and second. Zepeda unfortunately continued to get tagged: a double to left gave Cerritos a 3-2 and that was follwed by a single to left which ultimately plated two more runs. The righty out of Roosevelt was given a bit more rope to try to work out of further trouble, but another single followed by a HBP ended his day.

Valdez was called in to stop the bleeding, and quickly induced the next Falcons' batter into a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning. To the Huskies' credit, they answered back in bottom of the fifth: with the bases loaded and one out, De Alba slapped a ground ball though the 6-5 hole for a 2-run single to draw ELAC within one at 5-4. One out later, with the bases still loaded, Cerritos relief pitche Calix Armijo threw a wild pitch that got past catcher Alonso Reyes through to the backstop. Amaris Harrison, who was at third thanks to De Alba's single and a throwing error by the left-fielder, scampered home to tie the game at 5-5.

After Valdez worked around giving up a one-out triple to keep Cerritos off the scoreboard in the top of the sixth, the Pack took advantage of another mistake from the visitors in the bottom half of the inning to take the lead. 3B Evan Chavez and C Carlos Morales drew walks to start the inning. 2B Jesse Rojas was up next, and laid down a beauty of a sacrifice bunt to third to advance the runners. CF Bodhi Faulkner followed by popping out to shallow right, but during the ensuing at bat with Harrison up, Reyes couldn't get his glove on an Armijo pitch. The passed ball allowed Chavez to race home for the 6-5 lead.

Valdez worked around two base hits in the seventh and one base hit allowed in the eighth to hold the lead. And thankfully for the home Green, he saved his best for last: striking out the side in the ninth to secure the win.

HUSKY BITS

• Valdez got the win, pitching 4.2 innings in relief. He struck out six while giving up four hits and no walks. In his last 9.1 innings pitched, the freshman out of Salesian has only allowed one earned run.
• Harrison went 1-3 with two runs scored and a walk.
• De Alba went 1-3 with 2RBI and a walk.
• Barron went 1-4 with 2RBI.
• Huskies were outhit by the Falcons 11-4. But other than the fourth and fifth innings, ELAC was able to strand Cerritos' runners to escape trouble. To wit, the visitors had 11 left on base.

UP NEXT:

A break from conference play as the Pack makes their annual trek up to Santa Maria for the Allan Hancock Classic next week.