605 LEAGUE BASEBALL: Cerritos avenges last season’s series sweep with walk-off victory over Oxford Academy

April 4, 2026

By Loren Kopff • [email protected]

 When the 605 League opened for operations to begin the 2018-2019 school year, a new baseball rivalry was formed between Cerritos High and Oxford Academy. The Dons swept the Patriots that season in the weekly home and home series by scores of 2-1 and 4-2 and have been dominating the league since then, winning 52 of 56 contests in the circuit entering this past Tuesday’s home meeting.

On an overcast, damp afternoon with thoughts of last season’s Oxford Academy sweep over Cerritos still fresh in the heads of the Dons and head coach Matt Joyce, the 13^th meeting took eight innings. And a two-out, bases loaded single from senior right fielder Eli Sarno plated junior catcher Jeremiah Ju, sending the black and yellow into a frenzy as Cerritos came away with a 3-2 victory.

“It was just a great league game,” said Joyce. “The reality is everybody always thinks Cerritos is the class of the league and even Oxford’s coaches will tell you that. But in reality, they swept us last year. I didn’t think of us as the favorite at all; we had to prove that we could beat those guys. Last year was the first year we didn’t win league, so yeah, we’re on a mission for sure.”

After Jayden Sun struck out the first two batters of the eighth, he hit Ju on the first pitch, yielded an infield single to senior pinch hitter Ethan Martiz on a 1-0 count and hit junior second baseman Alex Laurin on the first pitch to load the bases before Sarno’s base hit on a 2-2 count.

Early on, it was a pitching duel between senior Jacob Hoosac, the team’s top pitcher, and Aaron Villagomez. But it was Oxford Academy which struck first, and early as Sora Suzuki tripled to center on the game’s second pitch and scored three pitches later a double from Elliot Chung. After walking Adrian Mejia, Hoosac would retire six straight before Suzuki reached on a wild pitch after striking out to open the top of the third inning.

But Suzuki would get caught trying to steal second, and Hoosac wouldn’t allow another runner to reach base until Suzuki doubled to the left field gap to begin the sixth. Hoosac, who threw a complete game one-hitter against Artesia High on Mar. 24, pitched seven innings, striking out seven, allowing four hits and walking two in his third no decision in six starts.

“He’s the heart and soul of our team,” said Joyce of Hoosac. “As far as I’m concerned, Jacob Hoosac…we live and die with him; we go with him. I love that kid and he’s awesome, and he’s been a bulldog on the mound. The most impressive inning to me was the inning after he gave up that second run when they took the lead.”

The Dons, who swept Artesia High last week, outscoring the Pioneers 12-1 with senior pitcher Jayce Aragon and Hoosac throwing complete games and holding them to just three hits, tied the game in the bottom of the third when Sarno singled to left with one out, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and later scored on a wild pitch. They had a chance to potentially take a 2-1 lead when senior first baseman Ryan Salas led off the sixth with a would-be double. However, the first base umpire ruled that he did not touch first base.

“Surely, that almost was a heartbreaker because surely, we would have bunted him to third and got it done,” said Joyce.

Although Cerritos was creating traffic throughout the game, it could only generate one run until the bottom of the seventh. That’s when senior center fielder Jacob Johnson led off with a base hit to right and went to second on a wild pitch.

Two outs later, Logan Lavoie walked Aragon before junior designated hitter Julian Diaz greeted Sun with a base hit to center, allowing Johnson to tie the game. Aragon then pitched the eighth, striking out Suzuki, Chung and Mejia.

The Dons would strand a runner on base in every inning; 12 for the game, but only two of them were at third. Sarno went three for five with five other players accounting for the other five hits.

“Today seemed like the day of the lazy fly ball,” said Joyce. “We didn’t hit a whole lot of stuff on the ground. Our team weapon is speed, so we didn’t have a ton of great at-bats early. But it’s a testament to the boys; they worked hard, they played hard and didn’t give up and that’s awesome. It came down to the last out.”

Cerritos was back to work this past Wednesday and blasted Buena Park High 24-10 to improve to 9-4. The Dons visited Oxford Academy on Apr. 2 and will go to Bellflower High on Wednesday in a game that was rained out on Feb. 18 before entertaining Valley Christian High on Thursday. The next league game won’t be until Apr. 14 when the Dons visit Pioneer High.

“We’re in the driver’s seat now because we took this first game with Oxford,” said Joyce. “If we handle business the rest of the way, which I’m confident we should…we’re not going to overlook Glenn; they beat us last year, and we won’t overlook anybody,” said Joyce. “But with our pitching, I’ve got two guys who are probably better than everybody else in the league. So, we’re just going to ride them. We feel good; getting this one was huge.”