Cerritos, Canyons Play Today at Fullerton

Cerritos College plays College of the Canyons today at noon at Cal State Fullerton in the final round of the State Community College Baseball Championship.

Cerritos (38-5) and Canyons (31-14) were scheduled to play Sunday at Fresno, but the game was postponed because of rain.

The Falcons beat the Cougars, 5-4, Friday for its only loss in the double-elimination tournament. So Cerritos, which hasn’t been beaten in the tournament, needs only one win over Canyons today to win its seventh state title, while Canyons will have to beat Cerritos twice to win its third championship in five years.

If Canyons wins, a second game will be played 30 minutes after the final out of the first game.

Left-hander John Rodriguez (7-1) will start for Cerritos and right-hander Frank Halcovich (8-4) will pitch for Canyons. Halcovich was the winning pitcher in Canyon’s 14-7 victory over Cerritos in March. Since then, the South Coast Conference champion Falcons have defeated the Mountain Valley Conference champion Cougars three straight times.

Of concern for George Horton, Cerritos’ first-year coach, are the slumps of Ron Ewart and Scott Wilkinson. Ewart and Wilkinson, two of Cerritos’ best hitters during the regular season, were a combined 1 for 23 at Fresno.