By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X
Since the 605 League was formed, the Cerritos High baseball team has been so dominant that the numbers are just about staggering. Entering its home game with John Glenn High last Friday, the Dons had won 48 of 49 league games since 2019, allowed 57 runs and shutout their league counterparts 22 times.
The other five league teams knew the day would come when they would knock off Cerritos, but no one knew when that day would come, until last Friday. A big time hit by senior left fielder Matthey Sy and five shutout innings in relief by junior Bert Rodriguez, who began the game in centerfield, was all the Eagles needed to upset league-leading Cerritos 3-1 to keep their playoff chances very much alive. They improved to 6-11 overall, 3-3 in league while the Dons dropped to 11-11, 5-1.
“I’m so proud of my players,” said Glenn head coach Ken Mason. “They battled and we believed. Yesterday was a close one; we thought we could win yesterday. We actually thought we could sweep. We just weren’t playing good baseball, and we know that. To take that hard loss yesterday and then come back today and have our pitchers show up the way they did to pitch so well…we still have to figure it out offensively. We had lots of traffic on the bases today and couldn’t quite get them across. But I’m really proud and we’re right in this thing. We just talked about not only do we have our sights on the playoffs, but we have our sights on maybe a co-league championship.”
Mason was talking about a 4-1 loss to Cerritos last Thursday night in which his team was limited to four hits and scored the lone run in the bottom of the sixth inning. It was the fifth loss of three runs or fewer of the 11 setbacks thus far.
“Honestly, it’s not that big of a deal,” said Cerritos assistant coach Chris Masella. “I still think we’re still in the driver’s seat to win league, and it helps us to understand where we’re at as a team and what we need to do to improve and get ourselves ready for the push to the playoffs.”
On the first pitch of the bottom of the first inning, senior center fielder Braxton Reed singled, stole second and scored on a one-out base hit from senior second baseman Carter Chi. He would move to second on a sacrifice from senior shortstop Adrian Regis and advance to third on a passed ball.
However, Cerritos would have five runners reach base over the final five innings, none getting past second base, Meanwhile, the Eagles got on the board in the top of the third when Cerritos junior pitcher Jacob Hoosac, who had worked a perfect first two innings, walked senior first baseman Brandon Rivera and allowed a base hit to center from senior right fielder Angel Aguilar.
Both runners would move up on an error and with two outs and facing a 0-2 count, Sy knocked in both runners with a double to the right field gap. It was just the fifth game for the La Mirada High transfer.
“That was absolutely huge, and we love having him here,” said Mason. “Coming in as a senior, it’s sometimes hard to fit in, and he fit right in; the kids embraced him. There’s a little stigma coming from La Mirada because they’re the big dogs. But he’s fit right in, he’s one of the guys and he’s clutch.”
Glenn had a chance to add to its lead in the next inning when junior second baseman Jonah Mason and senior catcher Raymond Acosta each singled and junior third baseman Josiah Alcala was hit by a pitch to load the bases. But two strikeouts and a force play at home kept the score at 2-1.
Again, the Eagles had the bases loaded with none out in the sixth but picked up their last run when a groundout from Aguilar plated Acosta, who had reached on an error. But the story of the game was on Rodriguez, who knew he would be coming into the game in the third inning no matter what the score was.
“We wanted [junior pitcher] Evan [Perez] to give us two, almost like an opener in the MLB,” said Mason. “We were going to Bert regardless. And then we had Josiah, our third baseman, was still available because of his [low] pitch count. So, we felt pretty good.
“We wanted to get Evan back at shortstop; he’s a really good shortstop for us,” he continued. “We’re stronger with Evan at shortstop and our backup shortstop back in center field.”
After a strikeout, Rodriguez walked Reed, who would then get caught stealing on a 1-2 count to senior first baseman Fabian Mejia, who singled to left two pitches later. Rodriguez then walked Chi but ended further damage by inducing Regis to groundout. Rodriguez would walk junior left fielder Justin Sagun in the fourth and yield a leadoff double to Chi in the sixth while striking out three more batters over the final four frames.
“I was just nervous because this was the biggest spot I’ve been in all year,” said Rodriguez. “But I knew if I just got the strikes down, my defense would have me.”
“He’s amazing; he’s a bulldog,” said Mason. “He was just on fire. We knew that he would be able to shut them down. We worked really hard as a coaching staff on scouting, so we felt like we had a good gameplan for their hitters and we executed that gameplan.”
Cerritos played four games last week and in three of them, it was held to fewer than five hits. For the season, the Dons have been limited to four hits or fewer seven times, winning one of them.
“You have to give it to that young man,” said Masella. “He came out and threw strikes and kept our hitters off balanced. We didn’t have an answer for him. I think a lot of it had to do with our inability to make adjustments in game, and it showed. Offensively, we struggled today.
“We didn’t execute the small ball and being able to advance the runners,” he later said. “We just had a bad day; it was an off day.”
“It was a good win; a good team win,” said Rodriguez. “We’ve been grinding all year. There were a lot of ups and downs, but [we’ve] been a good group of guys who stay together. We’re kind of like a family.”
The Dons had won 16 straight 605 League games since falling to Oxford Academy 6-4 on Apr. 25, 2023. Cerritos also saw its 25-game home league winning streak come to an end. The last time the black and gold lost a league game at home was on May 2, 2018, a 7-0 loss to Glenn. After completing a home and home series with Whitney High on Apr. 17, the Dons will entertain Ocean View High on Friday before taking the next week and a half off to prepare for a first place battle with Oxford Academy.
“We just have to take care of business and worry about ourselves,” said Masella. “That’s what it comes down to. It always comes down to the last week of the season, too, with those two games. We’ll see what happens.”
The Eagles feel they should be 6-0 in league as they dropped a 9-4 decision to last place Whitney and a 7-6 affair to Oxford Academy in which they blew leads of 4-1 after four innings and 6-5 after five and a half innings. Glenn wrapped up a home and home series with Pioneer High on Apr. 18 and will host Pasadena High on Wednesday before going to St. Pius X-St. Matthias High the next day.
“All our losses have been mental mistakes,” said Rodriguez. “I don’t think any team we’ve faced was any much better than us. But it happens; it’s baseball.”
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