Cohen’s 11 RBIs Lead Pierce to 30-6 Victory

The Pierce College baseball team’s losing streak didn’t last long.

After losing its first game of the season three days earlier, Pierce hammered Oxnard, 30-6, in a Western State Conference opener Thursday at Pierce.

Pierce (10-1-1) put the game away by scoring nine runs in the first inning. Third baseman Jason Cohen, a freshman from El Camino Real High, started the scoring with a two-run homer and capped the inning with a two-run double.

Cohen finished with 11 runs batted in.

Cohen, batting third, hit a three-run homer to spark an eight-run second inning and later drove in runs with a sacrifice fly and a bases-loaded walk.

Cohen could have had more RBIs--he struck out with the bases loaded in the fourth.

“I was talking to Coach (Bob) Lofrano and he said, ‘Look at it this way, if you had remained hot the whole game, you could have had 20 RBIs,’ ” said Cohen, who was three for four. “A key hit here and a key hit there and I could have done it.”

Staked to a 24-0 lead after four innings, Pierce starter Mike Eby (3-0) breezed. Eby, a freshman redshirt from Westlake High, went the distance, allowing eight hits.

Designated hitter Robby Welles hit two home runs and had four RBIs for Pierce, raising his home run total to six. Catcher Adam Pearlman also homered.

Erik Martinez had three hits and Joey Arnold--batting second--had two hits and reached base seven consecutive times.

Ricky Banuelos, Josh Smaler, Paul Geller and Pearlman each had two hits.

Pierce, which played its substitutes liberally in a 5-4 nonconference loss to Compton on Monday, was back in its season-long offensive groove.

“It was kind of a no-win situation,” Cohen said. “If we wouldn’t have scored a lot of runs, people would have asked, ‘What happened to that high-powered offense?’

“And when we do score runs, it’s like we were supposed to.”