On a rare Wednesday game, the Fullerton College baseball team came ready to play against Taft. The Hornets fueled by a terrific start from Gordon Cardenas shutout the visiting Cougars 11-0.

The Hornets bats came back to life against Cougars starting pitcher Matt Rogers, although with four errors his defense did not provide much assistance. The

In the bottom of the second inning the Hornets capitalized on an error by Taft second baseman Michael Dagg. With runners on first and third, catcher Jeffrey Murray singled through the left side, knocking in third baseman Trent Hammond.

Things would not get better for the Cougars defensively. Another unearned run came home when left fielder Anthony Seminaris hit a sacrifice fly to center, scoring designated hitter Shane Carrier.

Carrier was not done scoring just yet. After the Hornets finally got their first earned run across, the Cougars allowed yet another unearned run in the fifth inning. Then, Carrier came to the plate with two runners on base and hit the Hornets first home run of the season just over the left field ivy, bringing the score to 7-0 after five innings.

Just two innings later, Murray led off the bottom of the seventh with a solo shot. A couple batters later, first baseman Riley Roberts singled through the left side, scoring Seminaris and right fielder Julio Rivera.

Cardenas had a superb day on the mound for the Hornets. The sophomore pitcher finished with eight innings pitched, zero earned runs, five strikeouts and only allowed four hits.

Offensively the Hornets finally got their bats working after a sluggish past few games.

In a rare starting assignment, Murray led the way with three hits, including a home run and two runs batted in. Hammond also finished with three hits and three runs batted in. J. Rivera, Seminaris and newly inserted short stop Christian Prado all collected two hits a piece.

Following the recent slide, head coach Nick Fuscardo was looking for accountability from his team. Fuscardo was pleased with the way his squad responded to the wake up call. Just one day after the team hit their low point, Fuscardo stated that the team held a closed door, players only meeting.

“I don’t know what they said in their, that was their meeting, but they responded today,” said Fuscardo.

The Hornets will be off until Tuesday, when they will get back into conference play against Santa Ana. First pitch is at 2 p.m. Come see their next home game the following Thursday, April 9 at 2 p.m. when they will take on Santa Ana one last time.