After dropping two consecutive games to Palomar College on Feb. 13 and Feb. 15, the Fullerton College baseball team picked up their fourth consecutive win, with a 7-3 victory over the LA Mission Eagles, Saturday at home.
The Hornets (9-3) were led by an outstanding pitching performance out of sophomore Nick Morton. Morton improved to 2-1 with a complete game performance in which he only gave up one earned run on six hits, while striking out six LA Mission batters and only walking one.
“Nick was phenomenal today,” said Fullerton College manager Nick Fuscardo. “He was constantly getting ahead in the count on those hitters and put them in a position where they had to swing at his pitch. Anytime he is doing that, he will be successful.
Morton threw 120 pitches on the day, and 80 of them went for strikes.
“I had to throw a lot of pitches, but I feel fine,” said Morton. “I could go another nine innings right now.”
The Hornet offense continued the hot streak they have been on and they have now scored 40 runs over the course of this four-game winning streak that they are currently enjoying. They also have at least ten hits in each of those four games.
KC Huth continued his hot batting for the Hornets and went 2-4 with a walk. He has at least one hit in every game that he has played this year. One of those hits was almost a home run, but bounced off the wall and Huth had to settle for a triple. He came around to score right after on an RBI sacrifice fly by Jose Rojas.
“This team is really clicking offensively,” said Huth. “We are just getting guys on base and brining them around. When we can do that and get a pitching performance like we did today, we are nearly unstoppable.”
Dakota Wix also continued his hitting streak. Wix has played in all 12 of the Hornets’ games so far this season and has at least one hit in all of them. He went 1-5 on the day and scored a run.
John Orlando delivered a good performance, coming off the bench to pinch hit for Vince Venegas in the bottom of the sixth. He went 2-2 with two RBI.
The Hornets will have one more game before the start of Orange Empire Conference play. That game will be on Tuesday against the Long Beach City College Vikings. The Hornets know that getting a win against Long Beach will be crucial heading into league play.
“We have got ourselves on a little bit of a roll here,” Fuscardo said. “It always helps to head into conference play with a head of steam, especially playing in a conference as tough as this one.”