Eduardo Miranda

The Daily Independent

Cerro Coso baseball dropped a three-game Inland Empire Athletic Conference series against Desert last week, with the Coyotes winning one game on the road and losing two at home, including a 7-6 nail-biter in the finale Feb. 28.

In the series home opener Feb. 24, Cerro Coso gave up back-to-back five-run innings to fall 20-6. Rafael Echeverria started on the mound and went two innings, giving up seven runs, six earned, on six hits. He faced 17 batters and walked five with two strikeouts. Andre Carrillo threw 2.2 innings, giving up six runs, five earned, on five hits. He faced 17 batters with two walks and four strikeouts. Jack Banning threw 1.1 scoreless innings without a hit. He faced five batters with two strikeouts. Jacob Victory went two innings, giving up three runs, all earned, on three hits. He faced 11 batters with a walk and three strikeouts. Gabe Wetzel closed the final inning giving up four runs, all earned, on four hits. He faced nine batters with two strikeouts.

The Coyotes had 38 at-bats for six runs on 12 hits with six RBIs. They had one batter walk, while eight struck out and nine were left on base. Cayden Trujillo led the team with three RBIs from three hits including a leadoff home run. Andrew Bain had two RBIs from three hits, and Bryan London had one from three hits.

Cerro Coso took an early 1-0 lead on a solo home run from Trujillo, but the home team gave up back-to-back five-run innings to fall behind 10-1 and never recovered. Many of the team's seven errors came during those two innings.

The Coyotes traveled to Desert for game two on Feb. 26 and came away with a 13-3 road win to tie the series at a game apiece. Brandon Donohue earned the win on the mount, throwing eight innings of three-run ball (two earned), giving up 12 hits. He faced 38 batters with two walks and five strikeouts. Jacob Rice closed the game throwing a scoreless inning with a hit. He faced four batters and walked two.

The offense finished with 42 at-bats for 13 runs on 12 hits with nine RBIs. They had two batters walk, four strikeouts, and five left on base. Lauren Binney had two RBIs on a hit and a run scored. Bain had two RBIs from a hit. David Encarnacion, Cayden Johnson, Julian Minor, London, and Trujillo all had an RBI each.

The Coyote offense jumped out to an early 6-0 lead with two runs in the first, three in the second, and one in the third. Cerro Coso closed the game with a six-run eighth inning to put the game away.

Cerro Coso returned home Saturday looking to win the series against Desert. Whereas the first two games were blowouts, the final game was decided by one run. The Coyotes came close to stealing the series but lost game three 7-6.

Johnathan Gonzalez started on the mound, throwing six innings, giving up five runs, all earned, on 10 hits. He faced 30 batters for five walks. Shifu Hasegawa took the mound and threw an inning, giving up an earned run on one hit. He faced seven batters with no walks or strikeouts. Banning threw 0.0 innings with no hits for an earned run. He faced two batters with two walks. Eric Galvan threw 0.0 innings with no hits or runs. He faced two batters with no walks or strikeouts. Johnson closed the game throwing two scoreless innings. He faced eight batters for a walk and four strikeouts.

The offense had 37 at-bats for six runs on 11 hits with six RBIs. They had six batters walk, six batters strike out, and 12 runners left on base. Encarnacion led the team with three RBIs on four hits and scored two runs. Bain, Gabe Duchow, and Johnson all had one RBI.

Desert scored three runs in the first before the Coyotes scored twice in the second and third innings to take a 4-3 lead. They lost the lead in the fourth with Desert scoring two runs, 5-4. The Roadrunners added a run in the top of the seventh, but the Coyotes scored two in the bottom of the inning to tie the game at 6-6. The Roadrunners scored the winning run in the top of the eighth.

Cerro Coso fell to 8-10 overall and 4-2 in Inland Empire Athletic Conference play. They currently sit in third place, trailing Mt. San Jacinto by two games and Desert by a game.