Golden West Throttles Falcons, 12-3

Cerritos, Calif - In the last six games, the Cerritos College baseball team has struggled to find their offense, and each time the result was a loss. On Friday, the Falcons saw their season record drop to 2-7 after a 12-3 non-conference setback against Golden West College 5-4, who has been on a 4 game win streak that started in Bakersfield.

Sophomore starting pitcher Kyle Harper was peppered for five hits in the first two innings, but was able to keep the Rustlers off the board. However, in the third inning, a leadoff single by Daniel DeWolf was followed by a run-scoring double from Chase Harrison, while Blake Cooper drove in the second run of the inning. By the fifth inning, Harper (0-3) was still struggling and was pulled after allowing a walk and RBI base hit to Harrison (5-for-5, three RBI, three runs). But the most devastating blow of the game was a grand slam by #9 hitter, Danny Baker in a six-run sixth inning that blew the game out.

While the game was still within reach, the Falcons had moderate success against starting pitcher Cameron Ochoa (2-0) during his six innings of work. A one-out triple in the fourth inning by sophomore first baseman Josh Ancona when the game was still 2-0 wasn't cashed in, while Cerritos could only muster a single run in the fifth inning after a leadoff double by sophomore shortstop Chris Hefner. He ended up scoring on an infield ground out by sophomore outfielder Chris Esparza. Ancona and Esparza led the team with a pair of hits on the day.

By the end of the day, Golden West had pounded out 21 hits against a trio of Cerritos pitchers, with Blake Cooper joining Harrison with five hits, while Willie Shaw went 3-for-5.