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SUBURBAN LEAGUE BASEBALL
By Loren Kopff
As the John Glenn baseball team was enjoying its bye week from Suburban League action, it gave head coach Jack Brooks time scout Cerritos. In fact, Brooks saw the Dons play three times this season before the two met this past Tuesday in the second week of league action.
The scouting paid off as the visiting Eagles, behind senior ace Cesar Arzate, posted their first shutout of the season in a 13-0 rout. Arzate yielded one hit and struck out eight of the 17 batters he faced in the five-inning shortened game.
“It’s good to get the first [league] win.” Brooks said. “Cerritos is a good ball club. I like their lefty; he’s only a sophomore. I was nervous coming into the game. I thought he was going to give us some trouble. But our guys did a good job of executing what we talked about.”
It was the third straight blowout league loss for Cerritos (2-8 overall, 0-3 in league), which has been outscored 45-1 over the past seven days.
“Some of our guys are making errors and once one error comes, the domino effect comes in,” said Cerritos head coach Chris Aquino. “For today’s game I had three players not play for disciplinary reasons and they are three starters who are pretty big in our lineup defensively.”
Cerritos made six errors against Glenn with the first coming in the top of the first inning as it was hoping to turn an inning-ending double play. Instead, Glenn loaded the bases with one out and senior third baseman Rene Gaytan’s sacrifice bunt in front of the pitcher’s mound began the scoring for the Eagles. Senior left fielder Ryan Rodriguez then drove in a pair of runs with a base hit to left field to make it 4-0. Nine batters came to the plate and when the inning had finished, Glenn (7-4, 1-0) was comfortably ahead 5-0.
The Eagles added two more runs in the next inning without the benefit of a hit. Two errors, a walk and three stolen bases led to a run. Then sophomore shortstop Luis Rosas grounded out to bring in senior catcher Arturo Loera and make it a 7-0 affair. All seven runs were unearned and when the game finished, only one run was earned.
Glenn only got half a dozen hits off of sophomore starter Jacob Carter and junior Steven Chial. But Glenn was successful in manufacturing most of the runs, just like the team did throughout most of last season.
“That’s us; there’s no hiding it,” Brooks said. “We’re going to play the manufacture game, the small ball game. We’re not going to hit a ton of extra base hits.”
While the offense was having a fairly easy time at the expense of the Cerritos defense, Arzate was breezing through the Dons lineup. He was throwing a no-hitter until senior catcher Jake Liang’s two-out single in the fourth inning. Arzate walked one and did not allow a runner to get to second. Only three hitters reached base off of Arzate.
“He’s 5-1 and…not enough people know about him,” Brooks said. “I think he’s one of the better pitchers in the area. I know he doesn’t light up the radar gun like I think you have to for everybody to notice you. But as a pitcher who can throw three pitches for strikes and work both sides of the plate, I think he’s one of the best guys in the area.”
Senior right fielder Deven Galindo went two for three and Brooks was able to empty his bench as 16 players had at least one plate appearance. Both teams wrapped up the home and home series on Mar. 28. Glenn will host Baldwin Park on Saturday, San Jacinto on Monday and Cabrillo on Tuesday as part of the St, Paul Tournament. Cerritos will also participate in the St. Paul Tournament and will play Oak Park on Monday and Ontario Christian on Tuesday.
“I just keep telling them never to quit and to keep going,” Aquino said. “Just keep playing the game right and it will come to you. Hopefully we’ll be rewarded one day if we keep playing the ball right and the wins will come.”
