With the end of the regular season approaching, the Warriors had no mercy on the East Los Angeles Huskies, completely shutting them down 13-0.
In the fifth inning, Chris Vopinek, sophomore infielder, led the way at the plate with a three-run homerun, an RBI-double in the sixth inning and a two-run homerun in the eighth inning.
“It’s probably the best game I’ve ever played,” Vopinek said. “I come out everyday and put in work early with the coaches. They’ve had patience with me and I feel like it has paid off.”
After beating East L.A. on Tuesday, the Warriors (25-9, 14-5) remain in first place in the South Coast Conference, with Compton (20-15, 14-6), in second place, trailing behind at only half a game.
“We played a real good game today. We executed offensively, pitched really well and played good defense,” coach Nate Fernley said. Andrew Pulido, freshman pitcher, threw seven shutout innings, allowing three hits, one walk, and striking out five batters, and was relived by Tony Guerra and Dylan Linke.
“I just tried to give our team a win. After our heartfelt loss to Harbor on Saturday I felt like I had to go out there and do a good job pitching and hopefully my offense would take care of the rest,” Pulido said.
Pulido’s hard work on the mound was compensated by Vopinek, who went 4-for-4 with a total of seven RBI’s.
Kyle Petter, who went 4-for-5 with two doubles and Drew Rodela, who went 3-for-5 with an RBI double. Josh Thompson had two stolen bases.
“I’m hitting the ball well right now and had a good day at the plate,” Petter said. “I’m glad that I helped my team out.”
Last Saturday, EC played at Harbor to end the season series between the two teams.
Despite the Warriors having a 6-0 lead early on in the game, the Seahawks rallied back and took the game away from the Warriors in the bottom of the 10th inning.
“I don’t think we played very well. This was probably our worst played game. Situational wise, we ran ourselves out of innings, we didn’t play catch nor have good pitches,” Fernley said.
On Thursday, the Warriors hosted the Harbor Seahawks with Kyle Petter on the mound, who earned his 10th win of the season in an 8-2 victory.
He threw eight innings, allowed two runs, one earned, with six strikeouts and one walk.
Offensively, the Warriors were lead by Bobby Martin, sophomore outfielder, who had a solo homerun in the second inning to tie the game, and Jeff Miera who went 3-for-4 with and RBI single and a triple.
The Warriors, who play at East L.A. on Thursday, will have to win the game and hope that Compton loses to Mt. Sac so that they clinch the conference title.
If not, they will have to resume a game against Cerritos that was rained out in the fifth inning, with EC having a 5-0 lead.