Coalinga, CA – On Tuesday afternoon the West Hills College baseball squad took the opening game of a three game set over Cerro Coso. The Falcons improved its conference record to 2-2 on the season with the 8-7 victory. A ninth inning rally from the Falcons earns Fernando Ramirez his first win of the season. The Falcons and Head coach Stefan McGovern now hold a 12-9 record on the year.
Cerro Coso got things going early with a double down the right field line to start off the game. A groundout to second base and then shortstop gave the Coyotes an early 1-0 lead. West Hills answered back with two runs of its own in the bottom half of the inning.
Trent Bollman and
Brandon Hernandez got the Falcons started with back-to-back singles. With two outs in the innings
Brandon Barker roped a double to left field to plate the two runs.
Freshman
Cody Lorenzini toed the rubber for the Falcons to start the day. Despite not having his best stuff Loenzini was able to keep the ballgame close and give the Falcons a chance. In five innings of work Lorenzini allowed six runs and struck out one Coyote batter.
In the top of the second inning the Coyotes were able to string together four hits and retake the lead. With bases loaded a passed ball brought in the first run of the inning. A single to right field then brought in the second Cerro Coso run. Once again the Falcons offense responded with a big inning as well. With one out
Scotty Ingle got it started with a single to right field. A stolen base from Ingle put himself in scoring position for teammate
Evan Richards. Richards then laced a single to left field to bring in Ingle. Next up was
Trent Bollman who was able to score Richards all the way from first base with a double to the left field gap.
The Coyotes were able to knot the game up again with a run in the top of the fourth inning. A two out single followed by a double to deep right field brought the score even at four runs. In the bottom half of the inning back-to-back singles from Ingle and
Jake Lorenzini set the stage form
Matt Siedem. Siedem placed a ball right down the left field line for a two run double. A sacrifice fly from
Trent Bollman later scored Siedem to make the score 7-4 in favor of West Hills.
A two run fifth inning from the Coyotes kept the game close. A one out walk and two singles brought in the first run of the inninng. A groundout to second base later drove the second Cerro Coso run. Down by one run in the seventh inning, they coyotes used a leadoff walk to tie the game up once again. The base on balls followed by a stolen base and then a single to centerfield made the score 7-7.
Tondre Neal was the first Falcon pitcher to come out of the bullpen, as he allowed one run in 1.3 innings of work.
Next in on the mound for West Hills was freshman Fernando Ramirez. Fernando entered the game with runners on first and third and one out with the score tied. After walking the leadoff hitter, he struck out the next batter and got the following hitter to pop out weakly, keeping the score tied. Ramirez struck out two batters in his two and two thirds innings on the bump. Forcing weak contact and getting ahead of Cerro Coso batters earns Ramirez his first win of the season.
The Falcons used a full nine inning ball game to complete the game one victory. In the bottom of the ninth inning it was Siedem coming up with a clutch single to right field to start the inning off.
Cristian Arredondo then entered the game to run for Siedem. A sacrifice bunt off the bat of Richards moved Arredondo to second base and scoring positon for the heart of the Falcon lineup. With Bollman up to bat a passed ball moved Arredondo to third base and only 90 feet from a WHCC victory. A walk to Bollman then put runners at the corners from
Brandon Hernandez. Hernandez was able to walk-it-off with a sacrafice fly to deep left field.
Series Recap:
Game 1: West Hills 8 – Cerro Coso 7 4 - Keith Skrivner Field
Game 2: @ Cerro Coso – 6:00 p.m. start
Game 3: @ Cerro Coso – 1:00 p.m. start
Final: West Hills 8 – Cerro Coso 7
Next up: West Hills will travel to Ridgecrest, CA on Friday, March 17 to play Cerro Coso in an evening matchup First pitch is scheduled for 6:00 p.m.
For the latest on Falcons baseball, including news and score updates, follow @whcbaseball on Twitter.