605 LEAGUE BASEBALL: Artesia’s Lugo flirts with perfect game as Pioneers jump all over Whitney

 April 16, 2026

By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X

 On Mar. 27, things were looking bleak for Artesia High’s baseball team as it lost to Cerritos High in the back end of a home and home series. It was the sixth straight loss for the Pioneers, who were outscored 69-17 and outhit 78-22 in those games. The team then swept a home and home series with John Glenn High to get back in the 605 League race and split with Long Beach Cabrillo High last week in non-league action.

The Pioneers continued their mid-season surge in a big way, setting season highs in hits and runs as they blasted Whitney High 21-0 this past Tuesday at Cerritos Park East. Artesia improved to 6-11, 3-2 and gained ground on Pioneer High, which was no match for league-leading Cerritos. But more importantly for Artesia head coach Jose Serrano is the fact his team is gaining more confidence since beginning the season 2-9.

“The game of baseball is all about confidence and just getting hot at the right moment,” said Serrano. “I think the Glenn series set the tone on them believing that we could do something special this year. I’ve always said it’s always nice to win league. But just making a run in the playoffs and trying to chase that [CIF-Southern Section championship] ring and bring something to the program that if you believe in it, it could happen. And I think these kids are believing right now that they’re actually not bad. As long as we keep going like this, we’ll be fine.”

While Artesia is building momentum and confidence, it’s been a different story for Whitney, which has lost four straight games and seven of eight. On top of that, a coaching change was made during the time off as Tristen Chen stepped down for personal reasons and Henry Harms, a 2022 Cerritos graduate, took over. The 21-0 loss, the second time this season the Wildcats have been shutout, is the worst for the program without scoring a run since Cerritos defeated the ‘Cats 20-0 two seasons ago.

“It’s not indicative of how good we are as a program,” said Harms. “It’s just a lot of the cards are stacked against us on these games. Last week was our Spring Break and we’re not able to play games like other squads can because our guys are still academically focused. Good for them on that, but it hurts out here that we can’t have practices out here or we can’t have baseball games to keep people locked in.”

Artesia jumped on sophomore pitcher Titus Fernando in the top of the first, who walked senior shortstop Devon Torrez and hit junior second baseman Michael Nava. Both would advance on a wild pitch before scoring on an error. Senior catcher Adrian Romero then singled to right before Fernando retired the next three batters.

In fact, he worked a perfect second inning, needing only six pitches before the Pioneers batted around twice in the third, scoring 12 runs on nine hits with three walks and two more hit batters. The biggest of those nine hits were a two-run triple from Romero, a two-run double from junior right fielder Jorge Vidal, and a two-run single from senior third baseman Juan De Avila.

But Artesia’s offense wasn’t the only thing that was hot as senior pitcher Josue Lugo was putting together his best performance of the season. Lugo retired the first 11 batters he faced before giving up a single to Fernando. That was followed by a fielder’s choice from junior left fielder Kavi Stris to end the fourth. Sophomore pinch hitter Adithya Anand then led off the fifth with an infield knock before Lugo got groundouts on back to back pitches and struck out senior first baseman Sarthak Bathla to end the game.

Of Lugo’s 47 pitches, 35 were strikes and he reached a three-ball count only once. It was his second win of the season in sixth start.

“Even from [his last start] against Glenn, watching him just pound the strike zone, having confidence with his off-speed pitches and just going right to the hitters showed today,” said Serrano. “I think that was the big difference. I think he did a great job.”

“I don’t think we were really concerned about that,” said Harms of Lugo’s potential perfect game. “My goal for today was [for the players] to put the ball in play, and we did well on that; we did put a lot of baseballs in play. It’s just that [Artesia] played excellent defense, got a lot of outs. All the bloop singles that [we] possibly could have dropped, they got guys out there. We just got beat, really.”

Artesia would send 11 batters to the plate in the fourth, scoring seven more runs before having a relatively quiet fifth inning. Torrez went three for three, scored four times and drove in a pair while De Avila, Romero and Vidal all had three runs batted in. All nine starters had a hit, scored or had an RBI and 10 of the 12 players who had at least an at-bat reached base. The Pioneers also benefited from three Whitney pitchers hitting seven batters and walking five.

“You still want to be respectful; you want to respect the game and understand that hey, we have the big lead and where we’re at,” said Serrano. “You still want your hitters to get good at-bats and work on whatever they’re working on, from their timing to going [the opposite way]. But offensive-wise, you don’t want to change a thing.

“Finally, he had some really good at-bats and his timing was there,” he later said of Romero. “He had a base hit in the first inning, a triple after that, and really just seeing him putting some good at-bats and finally getting the ball on the barrel, I’m very impressed and I hope he gets going.”

The team’s will conclude the home and home series on Friday at Artesia with junior pitcher Jacob Nunag expected to start for the Wildcats opposite Vidal. The Pioneers will then visit Ocean View High on Saturday before hosting Pioneer on Tuesday to begin a series that could decide second place.

“You always want to think one game at a time,” said Serrano. “But of course, Pioneer…even at the beginning of the year when I saw the schedule, I saw Pioneer and Oxford [Academy], I knew it was going to come down to the last two weeks of the season to see if we have a playoff spot. But we have to take care of Friday, of course. If you win six games, you’re in the playoffs in this league. If we can sweep Pioneer, the whole Oxford series will be just for seeding pretty much.”

Whitney, which fell to 5-12 overall and 0-5 in the circuit, has no margin for error as it needs to win out and get some help it has dreams of the postseason. The Wildcats go to Oxford Academy on Tuesday.