Eduardo Miranda
The Daily Independent
The Cerro Coso Coyotes baseball team entered a week of non-conference action playing a home and away against Compton College Coyotes and then closing the week with a home game against Moorpark. The local Coyotes hosted the other Coyotes on Tuesday and earned a big 12-3 win.
"It was a clean game. We played really good defense. Rice got us seven innings; about the fourth he started to labor a little bit. But he kind of kicked it up and kind of bulldogged it and got a couple more, which is nice," said head coach Justus Scott on the win. "We were able to score some runs late against not bad pitching. Compton's arms were OK, and it was a clean game for us, which we haven't had many."
Jacob Rice went seven innings giving up three runs, two earned, on six hits. He faced 31 batters and finished with four walks and a strikeout. Andre Carrillo threw a pair of scoreless no-hit innings with no walks or strikeouts to close out the game.
Scott spoke on using just two arms against Compton with two more games this week and three Inland Empire Athletic Conference games next week.
"It was good. It saved some arms and they were clean as we didn't walk many," he said. "Rice in the sixth was in the upper 70s, around 78, 79 pitches. We were planning to roll him out there in the seventh, just maybe a hit or two but it was quick. It was a good job all the way around."
The defense had a strong showing behind Rice and Carrillo. The defense successfully completed 11 groundouts by third basemen Julian Minor, second basemen David Encarnacion, and shortstop Anthony Hector, including a double play in the ninth from Minor to Dax Patton at second, and then to Christian Wilkes at first.
The outfield was up to task, making nine catches including a diving catch by Cayden Johnson in right field. The defense finished with only two errors, with only one error leading to a run for the visitors.
On the offensive end, Cerro Coso scored 12 runs on 20 hits with 12 RBIs. The Coyotes had five batters walk, while five struck out and nine runners were left stranded. Julian Minor finished 3-for-5 with a team-high three RBIs on a three-run inside-the-park home run in the bottom of the eighth inning. Andrew Bain went 2-for-4 with two RBIs. Gabe Duchow went 2-for-4 with two RBIs. Lauren Binney, David Encarnacion, Cayden Trujillo, Wilkes, and Johnson each had one RBI, Johnson's coming on a solo home run.
Scott spoke on his offense scoring eight runs with two outs against Compton.
"I didn't know it was that many, but it's always good to extend an inning, and we did a pretty good job of getting some big hits late," he said. "When it's a 6-3 ballgame, anything can happen. The seventh is a little breathing room, and that eighth run, the solo homer, was huge — now a grand slam doesn't tie it. Scoring late capped that game."
In the bottom of the third with the bases loaded, Bain hit a two-run single with two outs. In the bottom of the seventh, Duchow hit an RBI single with two outs. The Coyotes scored five runs with two outs in the bottom of the eighth beginning with Johnson's solo home run, Minor's three-run inside the park home run, and a run-scoring single by Duchow.
The Coyotes (14-14, 9-6 IEAC) close the series with the Compton Coyotes on Thursday at Compton College. They then return home to host Moorpark on Saturday with the first pitch at 1 p.m. Scott spoke on what he wants to see from his team going to Compton College and hosting Moorpark.
"This is our time to get on a roll, which we seemed to do in years past around this time for our conference factor, but also a win-loss standpoint," the Coyotes coach said. "These two this week and three next week, and then it's down to the single games for two weeks in conference. This is our time — if we are going to get it done and make it a run, this is it, this week and next."