Warriors baseball sweeps Mt. San Jacinto, advances to Super Regionals
El Camino’s right fielder Dylan Knowles celebrates his grand slam against Mt. San Jacinto College with his teammates during Game 2 of the CCCAA SoCal Regionals at Warrior Field on Saturday, May 6. The Warriors beat the Eagles 13-3 and will move on to the Super Regionals on Thursday, May 11. (Ethan Cohen | The Union)
While Game 1 may have been scoreless until the very end, Game 2 saw the bats come alive in an offensive showdown.
The El Camino College Warriors swept the Mt. San Jacinto College Eagles 13-3 in the California Community College Athletic Association Baseball SoCal Regionals at Warrior Field on Saturday, May 6.
Game 1 saw a battle of the bullpens on May 5 ending in a 2-0 Warriors win against the Eagles.
After a mellow first inning, the Warriors’ second baseman Brendan McAndrews singled through the right side at the top of the second inning, allowing center fielder Elijah Tolsma to score igniting the Warriors’ offense.
The next two innings showed the Warriors slowly gaining momentum until the turning point of the game in the fifth inning.
At the top of the fifth inning, outfielder Dylan Knowles hit a grand slam to right field with infielders Connor Meidroth, Jaedeyn Edwards and McAndrews filling the bases, scoring four runs and sending the crowd wild.
Knowles said that his grand slam helped whip up the team’s morale.
“It was really relieving. It’s been a rough past month stats-wise, but that’s just baseball,” Knowles said. “Sometimes you do everything you can do and just don’t get rewarded. So [you] just gotta keep being aggressive.”
The sixth inning was just as rewarding for the Warriors, with Tolsma, Edwards, McAndrews and infielder Patrick Stark all adding to the board with four runs.
In the sixth inning, the Eagles recorded one run scored to break the shutout.
The Eagles’ outfielder Andre Torres doubled to left field, helping him secure a run. The Warriors allowed Eagles infielders Garrett Teunissen and Kyle Serna to score for two back-to-back runs.
The Eagles’ performance disappointed both their players and coaches alike.
“Well, 13-3 is not how you want to go out,” Eagles catcher Gavin Copeland said. “Just stay with it, just keep preparing and keep grinding and hope the ball rolls your way.”
Eagles coach Jake Hansen was thankful for being able to participate but expressed disappointment with the game’s outcome.
“This is a bitter taste… [it’s the] first time this program has been here in a lot of years,” Hansen said. “Obviously love the feeling of being able to get here, but now it’s time to prepare, getting all through of May and everything like that.”
Neither side earned runs after the sixth inning with the game ending in the Warriors’ favor in the bottom of the ninth inning.
El Camino coach Nate Fernley was proud of the Warriors’ performance during the game.
“I thought we did a really good job of coming out early offensively and putting some runs on the board, which took some of the pressure off,” Fernley said. “I thought we played a really solid game against a good team.”
The Warriors’ win over the Eagles in the regionals playoffs allows them to advance to the Super Regionals, which takes place from May 11 to 13.
“We got a tournament coming up next week,” Fernley said. “So Monday we’ll do a practice, get some scatter reports of some opponents and off we go.”
Editor Ethan Cohen contributed to this report
Editor’s Note: Removed an incorrect graph about the upcoming Warriors schedule on Sunday, May 7, at 10:35 p.m
