COD Baseball falls short in Sophomore Day slugfest with the Eagles, 16-9

COD (5-34; 3-20) found themselves down early, but stormed back in a big way to take the lead, but six fielding errors eventually let the visitors back into the game, as the Roadrunners fell to the Mt. San Jacinto Eagles (18-16; 12-11), 16-9.

Desert honored their five sophomore players prior to first pitch, with two of those five, leadoff hitter, Izayah Alvarez (Palm Desert H.S.) starting in center and right handed pitcher Brennan Morales (Hemet Tahquitz) starting on the mound in the starting lineup.

Mt. San Jacinto would get onto the board first, with four runs in the top half of the first, but a run in the bottom half of the inning for the Roadrunners kept the game close. Alvarez would start off with a single to center, then take second on a passed ball and move to third on a fantastic bunt sacrifice by freshman second baseman Delvan Gomez (Cerritos Gahr). Freshman short stop Ryan Rodriguez (Rancho Mirage H.S.) would bring Alvarez home on a sacrifice fly to left field, keeping Desert within three, 4-1.

Morales would shut down the Eagles in the top of the second, each batter flying out to a different outfielder, then the Roadrunners bats came alive, scoring six runs in the second to take a 7-4 lead.

Once Desert loaded the bases, the Eagles could not get out of it, as freshman left fielder Anthony Gutierrez (Yucca Valley H.S.) led off the inning with a single to right, freshman third baseman Michael Macias (Rancho Mirage H.S.) walked and freshman catcher Joseph Perez (Buckeye (AZ) Union) was hit by a pitch. Freshman right fielder Brice Pokershing (Fontana Summit) singled to center scoring two, Alvarez singled to center scoring Perez and Gomez singled to center scoring Pokershing. Rodriguez hit a sacrifice fly to right field scoring Alvarez and freshman designated hitter Mario Ramirez (Rancho Mirage H.S.) hit a ground out to the short stop, scoring Gomez.

When the dust settled, the Roadrunners had a 7-4 lead, a lead which would last for mere moments as Mt. San Jacinto tied the game up at 7-7 in the top of the third inning, then took a 10-7 lead in the top of the fourth.

Desert would add a run in the fifth and in the sixth to get closer, 10-9, but three run outbursts by the Eagles in the seventh and in the ninth, put the game out of reach.

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Information & Story provided by COD Sports Information. Photo by Michael Leone Photography (f8leone@yahoo.com).