Closing out their regular season, the Cerritos College baseball team posted a 14-0 South Coast Conference win over visiting Los Angeles Harbor College. The Falcons (31-9, 18-6), who finished in second place in the conference, outscored the Seahawks, 48-1 over the three-game series. The team will find out on Monday where they are seeded for the Southern California Regional Playoffs, which will start next Friday.

As a team, Cerritos scored runs in six of the innings, and got things started in the first inning. Sophomore Diego Orozco (Long Beach Wilson HS) drew a one-out walk and advanced to second base when freshman first baseman Wyatt Ormonde (Long Beach Millikan HS) was also walked. A single by freshman outfielder Owen Martin (Narbonne HS) brought in the first run of the game. Freshman third baseman Mateo Heredia (El Segundo HS) led off the second inning with a base hit, moved to second on a single from sophomore outfielder Evan Saito (Torrance HS) and scored on a single from Orozco. The Seahawks committed one of their four errors on the day, which accounted for the third run of the game.

Normally an outfielder, Saito started his first game at second base and made three outstanding defensive plays and recorded four putouts.

The Falcons continued to peck away at the LA Harbor pitchers and scored twice in the third inning on a two-out single by freshman shortstop Jake Fowler (Los Alamitos HS). Martin led off the inning with a triple, while sophomore outfielder Isaiah Rios (St. John Bosco HS) drew a walk.

Sophomore starting pitcher Derek Valdez (Los Alamitos HS) improved to 11-2 on the year after tossing six innings and allowed just two hits while striking out six. Coming on in relief, sophomore Holden Hungerford (Warren HS/Cal State Los Angeles) struck out five batters in his two innings of work, while freshman AJ Gonzalez (Gahr HS) retired all three batters he faced in the ninth inning.

Three errors in the fourth inning by the Seahawks led to five Falcon runs, which included sacrifice flies from both Rios and Fowler.

Martin finished the day going 3-for-3 with a walk and three runs scored, while Fowler drove in a season-high three runs. Orozco drew three more walks and now has 52 for the season. He is now one free pass away from tying the single-season school record of 53 walks set by Darrell Sherman (1988) and Craig Scoggins (1965).

The Falcons had just 10 hits on the day, drew 10 walks and were hit by four pitches, with six of those free passes coming around to score.

Photos by Daryl Peterson