The Pierce College baseball team didn’t get the welcome back party they wanted in their first appearance back to the playoffs since 2011.
Cerritos College starting pitcher and South Coast conference player of the year Jared Robinson gave Pierce all they could handle, throwing eight shutout innings and giving up only six hits as the Falcons defeated the Brahmas in game one of the best of three series in the first round, 5-1.
“I felt I did good, I hit my spots and I let my defense do most of the work,” said Robinson, who also hit in the DH spot as well as pitched.
Cerritos head coach Ken Gaylord was pleased with Robinson’s performance in game one.
“He was really good,” Gaylord said. “Pierce is a very good hitting team and that is just a testament of how good he is. He mixed his pitches well and he really threw well.”
The Brahmas defense, which has been horrendous all season long, reared its ugly head again against the Falcons. Pierce committed four errors including two by shortstop Austin Peters that allowed two unearned runs to score, one in the third and one in the fourth.
Of the five runs that the Falcons scored, only two runs were earned. Peters had a chance to turn a double play after he caught a line drive that Falcons first baseman Jose Romero hit. Peters rushed his throw and airmailed it into right field, allowing Romero to score from second.
Despite the two errors that Peters committed, head coach John Bushart remains optimistic about his freshman shortstop.
“I thought he was okay,” Bushart said about Peters’ errors. “In terms of that one play, it was just a mental error and I don’t think there was a play there. He tried to do too much with it.”
Pierce’s offense could not get going, as Robinson had the Brahmas off balance all game long. Pierce right fielder Joe Moran, who hit .370 during the regular season, went 0-3. The Brahmas also left eight men on base, including leaving two in the first and sixth inning.
Despite the poor showing in game one, Bushart feels that his team will bounce back for game two and try to extend the series to a game three.
“We know what we need to work on, we know what we need to get better with, and this is how we have done it all year long,” Bushart said. “We stumbled at the beginning of weeks and we finish strong at the end and this isn’t any different.”