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Pitching, defense, and a little heads-up play, hand Coyotes 9-5 decision over L.A. City College

By Cheeto Barrera, Sports Editor, The Daily Independent

“It was a gamble at the right time."

A heads up play by Jake Orr in the fourth atoned for a base running error, leading to a three-run inning against L.A. City College.

After failing to tag up on a fly ball to center from Fred Bello, Orr took advantage of the L.A. City catcher failing to cover home on a pop-up from Joe Keiser and sprinted in for the score. That sparked three runs in the inning, aided by a fielding error, and helped propel the Coyotes to a 9-5 win on Saturday.

“The catcher just vacated,” said Head Coach Dick Adams. “It was a gamble at the right time. It was goofy and an unconventional way of doing it.”

The Coyotes improve to 4-5 on the season.

The fourth inning put Cerro Coso after trailing 3-1, when L.A. City produced a base hit with runners on second and third, scoring both players in the top half of the inning.

Two runs in the sixth inning effectively put the game away for Cerro Coso, though the Coyotes continued to attack with three in the eighth.

Adams said L.A. City - who had defeated Cerro Coso the previous Thursday - kept challenging.

“They would not go away,” Adams said. “They had four or five guys who had pretty good days. Steve Johnson did a pretty good job at keeping them in check.”

Johnson went 7-plus innings (facing one batter in the eighth) to earn his second win on the season, improving to 2-1. Wes Oliver came in the ninth and shut down L.A. City for the save.

Drew Firebaugh replaced Johnson in the eighth, striking out two batters and didn't give up a hit.

Offensively for Cerro Coso, Keiser had three RBIs, and scored three runs. Fred Gerber drove in a pair of runs with Bello stealing three bases and scoring three times.

Defensively, Adams said his squad is really coming around since a seven-error nightmare against San Diego City.

“Defensively, the guys are playing a lot better since the San Diego series,” Adams said. “We're hoping to keep that up. We've been working on a few drills and we want to keep going with it.”

The Coyotes will face a tough opponent in El Camino starting Friday in a three-game, two-day series.

Eugene Wright will get the nod to start Friday's game, with Johnson returning to the mound for the opening half of a double header on Saturday.

Adams has yet to determine the starter for the second half. He said his boys will play an intersquad game today and he who ever stands out will probably get the start.

Friday's game is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. at the Dawg Yard. Saturday's first game will start at 11 a.m. with the second leg of the double header to commence 30 minutes after the conclusion.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

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