The Glendale Community College Vaqueros hung up their cleats as the El Camino College Warriors baseball team commanded a 9-2 win on Thursday, April 6, further solidifying its 21-9 overall record.

While the game started off with a quiet first inning, the action quickly picked up at the bottom of the second, setting the stage for a rally of runs for the Warriors.

The Warriors’ center fielder Elijah Tolsma‘s crack top left center broke the scoreboard silence with two runs bringing in third baseman Daniel Murillo from third.

“I got a 2-2 pitch and [the pitcher] made a mistake,” Tolsma said. “I was on time for it… and I’m happy we were able to add some more [runs] on after that.”

Tolsma made his presence felt on the field with a 3-for-5 performance at the plate, leaving the opposing team scrambling.

“I let a couple balls get away from me but we rallied as a team and that elevated my performance,” Tolsma said. “When we’re playing well, I’m playing well.”

Retired Vaqueros coach Kenny Powell said the team made mistakes by leaving guys on base and how their pitchers approached the Warriors lineup.

“I would say they’re making good contact, they’ve gotten guys to base, but they’ve made mistakes that cost them dearly,” Powell said.

Despite being first up to bat, the Vaqueros did not score a run until the top of the third inning. However, one run would prove to be futile to the Vaqueros as the Warriors would score three more runs at the bottom of the same inning.

That left the Vaqueros trailing 5-1 by the top of the fourth.

This pattern of performance by the Vaqueros would continue to persist through the entirety of the game as El Camino pitcher David Case held the Vaqueros to only one run scored in five innings off a total of six hits retiring eight batters.

The Vaqueros failed to score another run until the top of the seventh inning, which would be their last run of the game.

During the sixth and seventh innings, the Warriors slowed down the pace leading to a gap in performance. A sacrifice fly gave the Vaqueros another run on the board but that proved too little too late.

Another rally by the Warriors added another two runs to the board leaving the Vaqueros with no more to give.

“I think it was a good day for us,” Tolsma said. “I mean they’re a really good team and we showed up and we stuck to our plan of baseball and I think we just got to keep sticking with what we do best and not try and play anyone else’s game but just play our game and we’ll make a good run at this thing.”

With their sights set on maintaining their momentum, the Warriors are gearing up to host Santa Ana College in their final non-conference regular season game of the year, slated for April 7 at 2 p.m.

After the game, Vaqueros centerfielder Joey Craig spoke to The Union comparing the energetic output from the Warriors this season against the previous one.

“We knocked these guys out of the playoffs last year, they came out with a lot more fire and energy today,” Craig said. “I think we just needed to match that energy through the get-go and just carry that throughout all nine innings.”