Following an offensive drought on Thursday, the Hornets took the field at home on Saturday looking to bounce back against the Rustlers. It looked as though the offense came back to life early on, but late game mistakes cost FC to drop their second straight game.

Fullerton came out swinging in the first inning, as they jumped ahead of the Rustlers with a quick lead thanks to a towering double to left field by freshman Justin Row, bringing home Laine Huffman.

The Hornets struck again on the very next batter on a single to right field by sophomore Oscar Heredia scoring Row from second in the first of his two rbi’s on the day.

FC would score their final run of the day in the bottom of the third on a double by Trent Hammond, before struggles at the plate and costly fielding errors began to plague the team the rest of the game.

The Rustlers began to gain momentum at the top of the sixth with a double to left by Dillon Persinger. They also capitalized on several bunting errors in the seventh inning leading to two more runs giving them the lead.

The Hornets were unable to erase the deficit giving them their fourth loss at home, bringing their record to (16-7,6-4), dropping them to third in the conference behind OCC and Cypress.

Pitcher Kyle Lazcano (4-3) suffered his third loss of the year, tossing 5 innings and three strikeouts along with three earned runs.

After the game, shortstop Justin Row had this to say, “This one was a tough loss, but we just got to maintain the intensity we had in the first three innings throughout the whole game and focus on the little things we practice every day, we’re good enough to beat anybody and we know that.”

FC looks to bounce back to the top of the conference on Tuesday as they wrap up their series with the Rustlers at Golden West.

The Hornets will be back at home again on Saturday taking on Orange Coast at 12 p.m.