Ferraro Outduels State Win Leader Valdez As Baseball Upsets #1 Cerritos

An old-fashioned pitching duel between Pasadena City College ace Jameson Ferraro and Cerritos southpaw Derek Valdez went the Pasadena City College baseball team's way in a 2-1 road upset over the state #1-ranked Falcons on Thursday.

Ferraro (7-3 record) tossed a 2-hitter with seven strikeouts over eight plus innings, then Ben Griffith closed it with his sixth save.

In the ninth, an infield error and a walk ended Ferraro's brilliant afternoon. Although the Falcons scored an unearned run, Griffith retired the last three batters in order, stranding the tying runner on third base in inducing Marlon Oviedo to ground out to Lancers second baseman Ivan Barragan to end the South Coast Conference victory.

The win extended PCC head coach Pat McGee's streak of 20-win, complete seasons to six (2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023 and this year--2020 was abbreviated year due to the pandemic). Before McGee took over the program in 2015, PCC had just one 20-win season between 1973 and 2014. McGee directed four of his teams to at least 25-win seasons with a high of 28 in 2022. 

PCC moves to 20-16 overall and rise over the .500 mark in SCC play at 12-11 with Saturday's, 12 noon home series finale at Brookside Park's Jackie Robinson Field also the team's conference finale. Cerritos (30-6, top the SCC at 17-3) had a 16-game home win streak broken and 8-game overall string snapped.

The Lancers offense handed the heralded Valdez (7.1 innings, eight hits) his first loss, now 10-1. In the fourth inning, Barragan singled and eventually scored on a RBI ground out by leftfielder Thomas Villanueva. With two outs in the fifth, shortstop Jack Esguerra reached on an infield single to shortstop, then hot-hitting designated hitter Evan Nahra ripped a RBI double to give PCC a 2-0 lead.

Nahra and Esguerra each batted 2-for-4 while centerfielder Tyler Garcia hit a double in the ninth. 

"Since only 24 teams can make it into the playoffs, we absolutely needed a win v. one of the toughest teams in the state and going up against their All-State pitcher," McGee said. "Jameson and Ben gave us a chance today and we did enough v. Valdez. We got a great, 2-out at bat by Evan in the fifth. It's by far our biggest win of the season."

In the month of April, Nahra is hitting a scorching .517 (15-for-29, seven extra-base hits, and nine RBI) and slugging .897 in eight games. The freshman is 10-for-15 in the last four games with three doubles and two triples. 

While Valdez is fourth in the state and South Coast leader in earned run average at 1.55, Ferraro dropped his ERA to 1.94, now ninth in the state. Griffith is now tied for second in the conference in saves.

In the series opener Tuesday, Cerritos defeated PCC, 12-5 as Nahra, Esguerra and Barragan each collected two hits. On the mound, lefty reliever Alex Saucedo struck out three batters in 1.1 innings. Jaden Guzman pitched a scoreless ninth and lined a single at the plate.