The clouds loomed in the background and the wind picked up as the Warriors baseball team took the field and faced off against the L.A. Harbor Seahawks on Tuesday.
As they took to the field, the Warriors knew they had to keep their win streak going if they hoped to make it into playoffs. After a long nine innings of battle, EC came out victorious and shut the Seahawks out 2-0.
Sophomore pitcher Dalton Erb really believed his team is on a good streak right now.
“I think we’re really cruising right now, hopefully that doesn’t jinx us,” Erb said jokingly. “I think we’ve really found our groove.”
Both teams played valiantly all day, but neither really found a groove at the plate until late in the game. L.A. Harbor and EC earned their first hits in the top and bottom of the second inning.
The Seahawks earned two more hits in the top of the fourth and sixth innings, and two hits in the top of the seventh inning, but they couldn’t execute against the Warriors.
Sophomore Dalton Erb pitched an impressive eight innings against the Seahawks, only conceded seven hits, one walk, and recorded seven strikeouts. Head coach Nate Fernley said his team’s pitching was one of the highlights of the game.
“Overall, we played a pretty clean game,” Fernley said. “It was a really good pitchers’ duel. Erb did a great job and Reece (Buska) did a great job closing the game.”
Freshman pitcher Reece Buska closed the game out by relieving Erb in the ninth inning, throwing one strikeout and sealing the 2-0 victory for the Warriors.
As the game rolled on, so did the clouds carrying the rain. The weather really became a factor in the eighth inning, made the sand a bit wet, and made it tougher for both the Warriors pitcher Erb and Seahawks pitcher Biagio Schutt to keep their footing on the mound.
The weather truly became a factor in the bottom of the eighth inning. The Warriors and the weather forced two errors in the inning that helped them earn the first and only runs of the game. Sophomore shortstop Fred Smith earned the first hit in the inning for the Warriors, and was able reached second base due to an error by the Seahawks center-fielder.
The Warriors would scored the first run of the game when freshman third baseman Ricardo Serrano hit a single to right-center field that gave his team a late 1-0 lead. EC then got lucky with an error made by the Seahawks left-fielder on a pop-up to bring Serrano in for the score, and gave his team the final 2-0 lead for the win.
Ricardo Serrano described the eighth inning as the real turning point in the game, citing the double as a real boost for his team. Serrano did, however, feel his team still has a few things to work on.
“We need to work on our bunts,” Serrano said, “and we need to try and get base runners on with less than two outs.”
The baseball team continues to improve their conference record, closing in on getting to .500 with a now 6-7 record and a four-game win streak. They look to keep their winning streak going as they travel to L.A. Harbor for the second game in the three-game series Thursday, April 9.
