Botched Bunt Defense Sends Baseball To Series Loss v. Rio Hondo

The Pasadena City College baseball team has prided itself on fundamental play on defense, but uncharacteristically the team's infield turned bunt defense into an adventure on Saturday at Brookside Park's Jackie Robinson Field. Rio Hondo reached base on sacrifice bunts on back-to-back Lancers errors that led to three second-inning runs and went on to defeat PCC, 7-1.

The Roadrunners won 2-of-3 games to take the South Coast Conference series v. the Lancers.

With Jakob Guardado on the hill, PCC was poised to try to win the finale. In the second inning, Rio Hondo catcher Dylan Schumacher singled, then a routine bunt attempt was fumbled by PCC third baseman Toshiki Kuriya to make it first and second. The next batter Aaron Gutierrez dropped another bunt to first baseman Jake Trabbie, a Gold Glove-type defender in his two seasons here, who tried to tag him coming up the line and lost the ball for another error. After a fielder's choice grounder scored the Roadrunners' first run, Nolan Anguiano made PCC pay for the mistakes with a 2-run double to left.

In Rio Hondo's 3-run ninth, again the infield bunt defense had a letdown when another sacrifice bunt attempt by Daniel DeLucas turned into a single when the Lancers failed to cover the first base bag. 

While Guardado, named SoCal Player of the Week for Mar. 20-26, went on to pitch well (six innings, six hits, one earned run), he was saddled with the loss (4-3 record). RHC pitchers Ryan Perez and Ramon Brion shut down the Lancers bats on just seven hits. PCC's only run was on a bases-loaded walk to rightfielder Damien Ureta in the sixth. Brion, a lefty, came into relieve and left the runners stranded by striking out pinch hitter Jaden Guzman and getting shortstop Jack Esguerra to fly out to right. 

Ureta batted 1-for-2 with a double and drew two walks, leftfielder Aryonis Harrison batted 2-for-5 and second baseman Ivan Barragan was 2-for-4. 

On Friday, Guardado broke a 3-3 tie with 2-RBI single up the middle in the top of the ninth to give PCC a 5-3 victory at Rio Hondo. Earlier, Kuriya slugged his fourth home run, an opposite field shot to right in the second inning. Tied 1-1 in the eighth, Harrison, Trabbie and Guardado all hit singles and Kuriya lifted a sac fly to RF for the lead. Barragan hit a RBI single to make it 3-1. 

The Roadrunners tied it with two runs in the bottom of the frame before Guardado's heroics. Coleman Mitchell pitched perhaps his best game of the season, but got a no decision after seven innings of 4-hit ball. Closer Rider Gardner blew what would have tied him for the state lead in saves (has seven overall), but grabbed the pitching win. He pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to cap the victory. 

Overall, Harrison, Trabbie, Guardado, Kuriya, and Barragan each collected two hits. 

In the series opener on Tuesday (Mar. 28), the Lancers rallied from down 6-0 with a 4-run, sixth inning, but went on to lose to Rio Hondo, 7-4, at Brookside. Trabbie hit a 2-RBI double in the rally. Second baseman Amaris Harrison batted 2-for-4 with two doubles while starting pitcher/DH Patrick Garcia was 2-for-3 with a double. Kuriya was 2-for-5. Rio Hondo's big blow was a 3-run HR in the fifth by Diego Flores. 

Currently, the Lancers (17-11 overall) are in fifth place in the SCC at 10-7 and next play at Cerritos College on Monday, April 3 in a conference game that was postponed from Mar. 11. The Lancers already won the series v. the Falcons with two victories earlier this month.