With every game a must-win for the Warrior baseball team, freshman infielder Jeff Miera walked up the plate with the game tied 12-12 with two outs in the 10th inning Saturday in a South Coast Conference matchup against Compton College.
Coach Nate Fernley constantly preached poise and composure to his freshmen players and this was a chance for Miera to make his coach and teammates proud.
Mission accomplished.
Miera showed his poise by opting to drag a bunt instead of going for a home run to bring home a runner as the men defeated Compton 13-12 at home.
The Warriors travel to face Harbor today at 2:30 p.m. before hosting the Seahawks in the regular season finale tomorrow at 2:30 p.m.
Although the Warriors won the game, Fernley wasn’t happy with the team’s defense. While the team prides itself on pitching and defense, Fernley said he believed his team didn’t do either things well.
“Giving up twelve runs is a lot for us,” Fernley said. “But that’s what Compton does really well. Regardless, we could have played better defense. Our pitching has been inconsistent as of late.”
With two games left in the regular season, the team is on a three-game winning streak after dropping its previous six. With the conference a tight race between Mt. San Antonio, Cerritos and Long Beach colleges and EC, Fernley said each game is a must-win in order to make the playoffs.
“We are currently in first place and Cerritos, Long Beach and Mt. SAC are on our heels,” Fernley said. “First through fourth place in conference is only separated by one loss, so we definitely have to win every game this week.”
Fernley said he believed the team could have had a bigger lead in conference if it weren’t for a loss against Cerritos (14-7) and two losses against Long Beach (7-5, 2-0). Of those conference matchups, Fernley said he believed each game presented problems for the Warriors in different areas.
“We didn’t do a lot of things well in those three games that we had to win,” Fernley said. “In one game against Cerritos, our defense was terrible, allowing fourteen runs. In the two games against Long Beach, we couldn’t hit and we also made critical errors down the stretch. We had chances to win those two games, but we also had terrible decision making.”
Freshman third baseman Aaron Deguire agreed with Fernley that the Warriors committed too many errors against Long Beach.
“We didn’t play well at all, we made many critical mistakes,” Deguire said. “We had six errors in the final inning when we were basically up the whole game.”
Looking ahead to the playoffs, Fernley said he is very satisfied with the play of his freshmen players, which was one of the things that concerned the coach during the season, but said he believed they are very much improved.
“One of the major surprises is the recent play of our younger players during this three-game winning streak,” Fernley said. “They are making the right decisions and showing a lot of maturity on offense, whether it be bunting or getting an RBI instead of going for the kill.”
In its three games this week, freshman first baseman Jeremy Glunt calls every game a ‘must-win’.
“This is it, the season is coming down the wire,” Glunt said. “We want to win conference and in order to do that, we have to finish the season on a positive note before the playoffs. We control our destiny. If we win the rest of our games, then we win the conference championship.”