Chapman Takes 2 of 3 From Struggling Toros

A third of the way through the season, the Cal State Dominguez Hills baseball team still lacks consistency.

That was the assessment of second-year Coach George Wing after the Toros dropped two of three California Collegiate Athletic Assn. games to Chapman College, including a 9-4 loss Saturday at Hart Park in Orange.

“Early on we had good hitting and our pitching was struggling,” Wing said. “This weekend we got pitching, but our bats went into the tank and (Friday) so did our gloves.”

The Toros (5-6, 9-10-1 overall) fell to the .500 mark Friday by committing four errors in a 5-4 loss. Visiting Chapman’s winning run scored in the top of the ninth inning on a passed ball.

Friday’s loss was the first for pitcher Armando Gomez (4-1), who has been a standout for the Toros.

“We make a couple of easy ground balls and I’m 5-0,” Gomez told a group of well-wishers at Saturday’s game.

Explained Wing: “We had three chances to turn double plays, and we didn’t get them.”

The Toros opened the series with a 5-3 victory at Chapman on Thursday and appeared to stay within striking range of idle UC Riverside, which leads the CCAA with a 7-2 record.

Pitcher Gilbert Diaz (1-1) picked up the victory by scattering eight hits and striking out six. He walked only one. Darrell Connor, who has a 13-game hitting streak, and Miguel Medina each picked up his second home run of the season.

Hits in all three games of the series also gave the league’s leading hitter, Fred Camarena, an eight-game streak. Camarena went two for four Saturday, raising his batting average to .460.

But there were few other offensive highlights for the Toros. George Scott saw his hitting streak snapped at eight games Saturday when he fouled a ball off his foot in the first inning and had to leave the contest.

The Toros entered the three-game set tied with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for third place in the CCAA, just a couple of games off the pace set by Riverside and second-place Cal State Northridge (7-5). Chapman was only a half-game behind Dominguez Hills, however.

Further, the Toros figured to light up the scoreboard. In their three previous games, including a wild 20-19 victory over San Luis Obispo on March 9, they had scored 43 runs.

But the bats suddenly went quiet, especially on Saturday. The Toros stung the ball often, but mostly for hard outs, especially in the late innings when they tried to come from behind.

A three-run homer by Chapman’s Doug Yates broke the game open in the bottom of the seventh. Yates’ blast came off a hanging curve delivered by losing pitcher Willie Navarette (1-2) on a 1-1 count.

“The little things are eating us up right now,” said Wing, who indicated that he was generally pleased by his pitching staff in the series. “We know what we are up against, and we are digging ourselves a hole.”

The series with Chapman returns to Hart Park this Friday at 2:30 p.m. and concludes Saturday at 1 p.m. at Dominguez Hills.

Wing wouldn’t admit that the Toros need to win both games, saying: “We are still right there in the pack” in the CCAA race. “There’s really nobody that is going to run away with this thing.”