Baseball Drops a Pair of Close Ones to Open the Season

The MSJC baseball team kicked off the 2020 season over the weekend dropping a pair of tough games to Ventura and LA Harbor at home.

The Eagles opened the season on Friday and seemed to be on their way to a win, before a rough ninth inning allowed Ventura to claim the victory 8-5.  The Pirates were able to push across 5 runs in the top of the 9th to erase a 5-3 Eagles lead.  MSJC opened the scoring with a four run bottom of the 4th.  In the 4th Fabian Correa doubled to left center to score Ricky Nunez for the Eagles first run of 2020.  Ajay Parcero would add an RBI later in the inning and then Correa would score on a wild pitch to make it 3-0.  MSJC tacked on one more on a strange double play off the bat of Joseph Hauck that scored Simon Rangel to extend the lead to 4-0.  Ventura chipped back in the top of the 5th as they scored a pair of unearned runs to make it 4-2, before the Eagles pushed the lead back to 3 in the bottom of the 6th when Aaron Harper tripled down the left field line to score Parcero.  A run by Ventura in the 7th made it 5-3, before the 5 run ninth.

Alonzo Diaz took the hard luck loss for the Eagles on the mound, he went 3 innings in releif yeilding 5 runs on 8 hits.  Andrew Shepard was solid in his season debut as the starter went 4 scoreless innings allowing just 3 hits and walking one while striking out a pair.

Saturday it was the first inning, not the 9th that cost the MSJC their first win of the year as LA Harbor scored 4 times in the opening frame on their way to a 6-4 win.  The Eagles scored single runs in the 1st, 3rd, 7th, and 8th innings but could never put together the big inning they were looking for.  Nunez and Nathan Baker each had an RBI for MSJC in the loss, while Gabriel Ponce De Leon, Peter Brooks, D.J. Downen, and Hauck scored runs for the Eagles.  Brandon Reyes took the loss on the mound despite allowing just one earned run.  Reyes struck out 6 in just two innings of work.  Alex Banuelos, Nick Williams, and Gilbert Jaurez were impressive out of the bullpen as they combined to work 7 innings allowing just one run and striking out 7 more Seahawks.  Banuelos went 4 innings while Williams went two and Jaurez pitched the 9th.

The Eagles will be right back at it on Tuesday when they host Cerritos at 2 pm.  After Tuesday's contest the Eagles will hit the road for the first time this year when they go on to play three straight away from home at Fullerton (Jan. 30th), Imperial Valley (Feb. 4th), and return a game at Cerritos (Feb. 6th).