Huskies Slug Way to Victory over Cerritos
by Stephen Morales (@grecomeco23)
Photos by Mario Villegas (@marviljr)
After dropping the first game in a crucial series with the 2nd place Cerritos Falcons, East Los Angeles Baseball Coach Alec Adame knew his offense needed to pick up in order to ground the high flying, Falcons.
Pick up is just what the Huskies offense did, slugging their way to a home 10-6 victory over the Falcons evening the series at a game a piece.
The Huskies jumped on the Falcons early. Manny Ramirez Jr. continued his hot hitting by crushing a 2 run homer to left in the first and the Huskies had a 2-0 lead. The home run was Ramirez Jr's third in the last 5 games.
After a crisp first inning, Husky starting pitcher Hector Valdez would run into some bad luck in the 2nd and 3rd innings and the Huskies would find themselves down in a 5-2 hole. Valdez would settle down and give up only one run in his final three innings. 2 of the Falcons runs were scored on home runs by Wyatt Ormonde.
With Valdez keeping the Falcons at bay, there was more than enough time for the bats to get to work.
In the bottom of the 4th a single from Matias Nolasco and a double from Jesse Rojas put the Huskies in business. Felipe De Alba hit a long sac fly to score Nolasco and Mahki Clark scored Rojas on an RBI single, and the Huskies were back within a run.
They would complete comeback in the fifth when Matthew Vargas and Nolasco would single, and Vargas scored on a hit from De Alba.
Despite giving up the lead in the sixth, the Huskies had momentum and soon the door would swing wide open. Evan Chavez singled and John Kully would walk, leading to Ramirez Jr's RBI double scored Chavez and the game was tied. With 2 outs, a Nolasco single scored two runs and the Huskies were back on top. Back-to-back singles from Rojas and De Alba scored Nolasco and the Huskies were up 9-6. They would score a final run in the 8th on a booming homer from Nolasco.
Valdez would earn the win in his six innings of work, giving up three earned runs and striking out 3. Juan Contreras would go a solid three innings in relief to earn the save giving up one hit.
Coach Adame loved the way the pitchers battled. "We played very good defense today except for one big mishap in RF… Hector Valdez did not have his best stuff today, but he was able to still keep us in the game for 6 innings; while Juan Contreras was phenomenal for 3 innings!"
In addition to his home run, Ramirez Jr. would finish with two hits and 3 RBIs. Nolasco would finish with a 4-hit day and three RBI's including his home run. De Alba had three hits and three RBI's. Clark had the other RBI and Chavez and Rojas each added two hits. All contributing to the Huskies 17 hits. A true team win.
Coach Adame was very happy with the teams effort. "I feel that our hitters our fully buying into our team concept approach, because we had 25 hard contacts today with only one K, & only 2 soft fly balls/popups. We are doing it at a time where we need to win 5 out of our last 8 games to earn a spot in the playoffs! We feel good about our chances after today's win!"
Up next the Huskies head back to Cerritos on Saturday looking to win the series with the Falcons. The final two series of the season will see the Huskies having home field advantage both series. The Huskies will face the Compton Tartars the week of April 14th before finishing against the Pasadena City College Lancers the week of April 21st.
