Community College Baseball : Golden West Self-Destructs, Cerritos Takes SCC Title, 15-5

Golden West College was on the verge of its second win in three games over Cerritos, the state’s top-ranked team, Saturday afternoon when the Rustlers’ defense and bullpen collapsed--abruptly and completely.

Ahead 5-4, Golden West fielders made five errors in the ninth inning. Meanwhile, relievers Gary Buckels and David Wilk were no more effective, allowing seven hits. The results of these less-than-clutch performances: an 11-run inning and a 15-5 Cerritos win that clinched the South Coast Conference championship for the Falcons at Huntington Beach.

The second-place Rustlers are usually one of the more fundamentally sound teams around, but in the final inning against Cerritos, it appeared Golden West was on a mission to show the little leaguers who were in the stands how not to play the game.

Golden West threw to the wrong bases, booted ground balls, made bad throws and misplayed fly balls. Meanwhile, Buckels (3-2), who took his second loss in as many games, and Wilk were touched up by, among others, Mike Benjamin, who had a two-run single, and Ron Ewart, who had a two-run double.

All this occurred to the great consternation of Rustler Coach Fred Hoover, who was so angry afterward that a red blush showed threw on his tanned face.

“This game bothers the hell out of me,” he said. “For eight innings, I liked it just fine. But you have to play nine innings to beat Cerritos, and we didn’t.”

Golden West (12-7 in conference and 21-8 overall) wanted this game badly. The Rustlers had no real hope of catching Cerritos in the standings, but a win would have given them a 2-1 series edge over the team that will be the favorite to win the state tournament, which starts at the end of this month in Fresno.

And, for a while at least, the Rustlers were an inspired team. They led, 5-2, after five innings and it was 5-4 when Hoover called on Buckels, the conference’s best relief pitcher, in the eighth.

In that inning, Buckels looked to be on his game as he struck out two of the Falcons’ best hitters, Craig Worthington and Scott Wilkinson.

But Kevin Evert led off the ninth with an infield single, and the next six Cerritos batters went on to reach base, too. Tony Trevino singled in the tying run, and when Golden West right fielder Casey Martin made a bad throw to third base trying to get Quinn Mack, Trevino took second. Ever Magallanes then was hit by a pitch to load the bases, after which Golden West made its second error of the inning, an error that gave the Falcons the lead for good.

Bill Mosiello hit a ground ball to third baseman Scott Rath, who threw to catcher Shane Flores in hopes of starting a double play. However, Rath’s throw was in the dirt, allowing the go-ahead run to score.

Later in the inning, shortstop Shawn Gilbert misplayed a ground ball, left fielder Ken Demarco missed a fly ball and Martin made another error in right. Wilk, who replaced Buckels, faced five batters and retired none of them. He allowed two hits, a walk and two batters got on because of errors.

Dave Serrano (10-0), who pitched 5 innings in relief of Al Osuna, quickly retired the Rustlers in the ninth to end the game, and the Falcons celebrated their first conference title since 1979.

In other South Coast Conference action:

Cypress 9, Fullerton 1--Jim Bennett pitched a complete-game five-hitter to lead the Chargers to their 20th win of the season at Fullerton.

Orange Coast 16, Saddleback 10--Gene Roumimper hit a home run for the third straight game and drove in four runs to lead the Pirates (10-9, 15-15) past the Gauchos (8-11, 15-15) at Saddleback.

Roumimper’s four RBIs give him 52 on the season to set a school record.

Santa Ana 9, Mt. San Antonio 8--The Dons (10-8, 24-11) scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh to rally from a 7-6 deficit and then held on to beat the Mounties (7-12, 16-15) at Santa Ana.

Ruben Gonzalez set a Santa Ana school record by hitting his 11th home run of the season in the first inning.