Rabelero pitches Huskies to Series win over Pasadena CC
by Stephen Morales @grecomeco23
Photos by Mario Villegas @marviljr
Sometimes in baseball, when a pitcher toes the mound to start the game, you just know early on that he is on that day. That he will control the game for all nine innings and all your offense needs is to get him a couple of runs.
Today, Michael Rabelero was that pitcher for the ELAC Huskies.
In Game 2 of the Huskies critical series with the Pasadena City College Lancers, and having won a wild 11-10 victory in game one, ELAC Head Coach Alec Adame handed the ball to Rabelero and boy did the right hander deliver with a complete game 4-1 victory over the visiting Lancers.
The win gave the Huskies a series win over Pasadena, and got the Huskies their first conference series victory this year.
The Huskies have now won four of their last six games, with one tie included.
"Michael was excellent today, getting alot of first pitch strikes, and getting alot of ground balls." said Adame. "After having to use our bullpen alot on Tuesday, it was important for him to go deep in the game and give the bullpen some rest."
After Rabelero made quick work of the Lancers in the 1st inning, the Huskies got to work, with help from the Lancers defense. Both Evan Chavez and Beno Olmeda reached on errors, the second of which allowed Chavez to score the first run. Olmeda would advance to second on the play and would later score on a single from Anthony Barron.
In the next two innings, Rabelero would allow a single baserunner each inning but no harm done.
Chavez would walk to lead off the bottom of the 3rd and following a single from Matias Nolasco, Olmeda would execute a perfect sacrifice bunt. Up next was Matthew McIntire who had a patient at bat leading to a walk, which would include a passed ball on ball 4 allowing Chavez to scamper home with the third Huskies run.
In the fifth inning, the Lancers finally reached Rabelero for a run as Tyler Garcia would single and score on a double from Bryan Richman, who would try and take third on the throw home but an alert Carlos Morales threw to McIntire at 3rd base who tagged out Richman. The first of a couple nifty plays by the Huskies defense who would complete the next two innings with double plays.
The Huskies would get an insurance run in the 7th as Nolasco would single and go to 3rd on a single from Olmeda. Another passed ball would bring in Nolasco for the 4-1 Husky lead.
With that three-run lead, Rabelero would look to finish his gem. He retired the next five batters in a row before a 2 out single in the ninth which allowed him to punctuate his outing with a strikeout to end the game.
Rabelero finished his complete game with allowing one run on eight hits with four strikeouts in 122 pitches.
Nolasco and Manny Ramirez Jr. would also record two hits each on the day and Nolasco and McIntire would also add a stolen base.
The Huskies improved to 13-16-1 on the year and will go for the sweep of Pasadena this Saturday at noon at Brookside Park in Pasadena before they look to their next series with Long Beach City College.
