East L.A. Scores Early, Often, Routs Cypress

It looked like a good start for Cypress in its Southern California community college regional playoff elimination game Sunday at Santa Ana College. The Chargers’ Ryan Hubbard led off the game by smacking a pitch into right field, but before the ball could drop, East Los Angeles right fielder John Hoyos dove and made a spectacular catch to rob Hubbard of a hit.

Things only got worse for the Chargers, who lost, 10-5, and were eliminated from the playoffs.

East L.A.’s Charlie Valenzuela hit a line-drive home run to right in the bottom of the first inning to give the Huskies an early lead and Erick Perez hit a three-run shotin the third that put East L.A. up,4-0.

Valenzuela finished with two hits and scored two runs and Perez went three-for-three with a career-high six runs batted in as the Huskies advanced to the state playoffs in Fresno.

“I think we’ve clicked as a team and should be all right in state if we keep playing our ‘A’ game,” Perez said. “We just want to send our graduating players out on a good note.”

Cypress did have its chances to get back into the game, but every time the Chargers would get close, East L.A. had an answer.

“We got beat by a good team today,” Charger center fielder Ben Francisco said.

Cypress closed to within one run at 4-3, scoring three in the fourth following an East L.A. error. But East L.A. scored a run in the bottom of the fourth and three runs in the sixth to take an 8-3 lead.

The Chargers cut the lead to 8-5 on a one-out, two-run home run by Jeff Ruziecki in the seventh. After East L.A. reliever Gabriel Apodaca walked the next batter, Mike Tomarelli put down a bunt and appeared to beat the throw to first, but was called out.

Chris Klosterman then grounded out to end the inning and Cypress never threatened again.

“I think we had the momentum going there and got a tough call at first base,” Cypress Coach Scott Pickler said.

Cypress, which lost earlier in the tournament to East L.A., 10-3, knew it had to win twice Sunday in order to advance. Pickler still was impressed by his team’s effort.

“It made it tough losing the first game, but our guys showed a lot of courage, a lot of guts,” he said. “It would have been easy for them to roll over.”

Francisco finished with two hits, including a double, and two runs scored. Ruziecki also had two hits and two runs scored, but thinks he and the team could have done better.

“We didn’t swing the bat [well] when we needed to,” he said.

The Chargers finished the season 36-12.