The bullpen couldn’t hold on to an early lead as the baseball team lost its South Coast Conference opener to the East L.A. Huskies, 7-5.

The loss was the first for the Warriors who fell to 7-1, 0-1, while the Huskies remained undefeated at 10-0,1-0.

“This was a good conference game,” coach Greg Bergeron said. “They played well and we played well, but they scored two more runs than we did.”

The Warriors look to rebound against conference foes Mt. SAC today at Laverne University at 6 p.m. and on Saturday, they take on archrival L.A. Harbor at noon.

“They’re both good teams,” Bergeron said.

“We play in a strong conference, so all games should be close.”

In Tuesday’s game, the Warriors took an early 2-0 lead in the top of the fourth inning. First baseman Larry Williams led off with a single then sophomore Ryan Sharman followed it with a home run.

The lead was quickly cut in half in the bottom of the inning when the Huskies led off with a home run off starting pitcher Daniel Boltares.

However, the Warriors high potent offense responded quickly in the top of the fifth.

Before hitting a two-run shot, sophomore Bart Babineaux was hit, but the umpire ruled that he leaned his shoulder into the pitch. Babineaux returned to the batters box and clobbered the next pitch into deep left field.

“I was just trying to get on base, of course I dove in. The umpire made a good call,” Babineaux said. “Next pitch was a change-up inside. He left it up and I let him know about it.”

The Warriors looked like they had control of the game but with two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Huskies hit back-to-back home runs tying the game at four.

“We fell behind 4-1, but we found a way to battle back,” East L.A. coach James Heins said. “It was a dog fight, you’ve got to give credit to those guys, they battle their butts off as well.”

In the bottom of the seventh inning, the Huskies took their first lead 5-4 on a sacrifice fly, yet the resilient Warriors would not succumb, and tied it in the top of the eight inning.

“El Camino is pretty good,” Heins said. “They’ve got good players, they do some things offensively and put to ball in play a lot.”

Relief pitcher Joel Weeks took the mound in the bottom of the eight inning trying to hold off the Huskies but catcher Angel Sanchez had a different idea.

“My teammates told me that he has a good curve ball and that he would throw it at any time,” Sanchez said.

“The first pitch was a fast ball and I didn’t get it, so I knew that the curve ball was coming” he said.

It came and it went into deep left field for the game winning leadoff home run. The Huskies added an insurance run later in the inning.

“Back and forth, it was a great game,” assistant coach Tom Bergeron said. “I tip my hat, they’re a good ball club; they hit the heck out of the ball.”

Last Saturday, the Warriors defeated Fullerton College 11-6, coming from behind in the late innings.

The Warriors were a bit rusty because they hadn’t played in nine days.

“Our philopshophy is trying to wear down the other team’s starter and get to the bullpen,” Bergeron said.

That’s exactly what they did scoring in the last three innings.

“We got to their bullpen and scored nine runs.” Bergeron said.