The struggles continued for the Fullerton College baseball team as they lost at home to their district rival, Cypress College, 13-4 on Tuesday.
This is the sixth loss in a row for the Hornets.
It didn’t take long for things to unravel for Hornets starter David Schlomovits. A hit batter got the lead man on base and a flurry of hits and runs followed.
Cypress outfielder Ricky Lane singled to right field, followed by a Coby Morales RBI single to center that scored the first run.
Hornets head coach Chad Baum made a visit to the mound to calm down Shlomovits and immediately after, the starting pitcher gave up an RBI double to Brenden Harris of Cypress College, who ended up two for four with three runs batted in on the day.
Shlomovits ended up giving up 10 runs on 10 hits with two strikeouts.
Bryce Barnett came out of the bullpen for the Hornets to start the second inning.
Barnett showed great command and gave the Hornets five shutout innings in relief.
“Bryce did good, he’s been struggling and he was able to keep it simple for himself and kept us in the game. Unfortunately, the first inning got away from a guy who had been pitching well in his last three starts in David,” Coach Baum commented regarding his pitchers.
Despite the 10 run deficit, the Hornets battled back at the plate.
In the bottom of the second, Cypress starting pitcher Brett Garcia hit Hornet catcher Jacob Sharp to lead off the inning.
Third baseman Sawyer Chesley was able to reach on a Cypress fielding error, followed by Sharp stealing third base.
Fullerton College shortstop David Barrios drove in Sharp on a fielder’s choice to get the Hornets on the board, trailing 10-1.
The Hornets would add two more runs in the bottom of the fourth on a Sawyer Chesley sacrifice fly and a Brian Landon triple down the right-field line, scoring Marco Malerba.
The Hornets threatened in the bottom of the sixth when David Barrios tripled scoring Jacob Sharp.
Cypress reliever Sebastian Diaz entered the game and hit Brian Landon and then walked Ryan Lamastra to load the bases before striking out Dominic Martinez to end the inning.
Cypress College would add three more runs in the top of the seventh inning with a pair of RBI singles and a fielder’s choice that ended up scoring a run, due to a throwing error by Hornets second baseman Ryan Lamastra.
“I think a lot of our problem is we’re trying way too hard and the simple things we work on in practice aren’t showing up in the game. And that’s what we need to fix,” Coach Baum said.
Following today’s loss, the Hornets fell to 3-14 overall and 1-12 in the conference.
They will look to even the series Thursday, May 13 against Cypress at home at 2 p.m.