The home crowd groaned with frustration after Tartars’ second baseman Alberto Avila put his head down, sprinted and beat out an infield single, breaking up Warriors’ starting pitcher Cassius Hamm’s perfect game with two outs in the sixth inning.

“Yeah I think everyone was aware of it,” Hamm said on the perfect game bid. “They got that one infield single in the sixth; I wasn’t perfect today.”

Hamm started off the game retiring the first 17 batters he faced and pitched eight shutout innings, giving up one hit and striking out nine batters in El Camino’s 7-0 win over El Camino-Compton Center on Tuesday.

“He threw the ball wherever he wanted to and controlled the tempo of the game,” coach Nate Fernley said. “He was always ahead and was able to drop the curveball in there when he needed to.”

The freshman pitcher said he was surprised he was taken out before getting a chance at the complete game one-hit shutout, but knew keeping his arm healthy was the reason.

“Obviously if he had given up one less hit I would have kept him in there,” Fernley said smiling. “He was at about 95 pitches and we’re coming down the home stretch. We’re going to need him.”

The Warriors opened up the scoring in the bottom of the sixth inning when freshman catcher Connor Underwood came up with a runner on and drove a fastball over the left field fence for a two-run home run, extending the lead to 4-0.

“My other two at bats I didn’t do too well, so I was just sitting on the fastball and tried to put a good piece on it,” Underwood said. “It felt good to give Hamm a little insurance and let him settle in there.”

The Warriors continue to play well at home, improving to 8-1 while playing at Warrior Field this season.

“We do play well at home, I think we’re built to play here a little bit,” Fernley said. “We have outfielders that can cover some territory and we have some left handed bats that can make use of the short porch to right.”

After the win, El Camino moves to 5-2 in conference and 16-6 overall this season.

The Warriors will play on the road against El Camino-Compton Center on Thursday at 2:30 p.m.