Cypress Loses Its Regional Opener to East Los Angeles

The road to a fourth state championship just got a little longer and a lot rougher for the Cypress College baseball team.

East Los Angeles defeated the Chargers, 10-3, in the second round of the Southern California regional playoffs Friday, leaving Cypress one loss from elimination.

Cypress (34-11) will play L.A. Pierce at 10 a.m. today at Fullerton College, with the winner playing again at 3 p.m. The winner of the 3 p.m. game advances to the championship round Sunday at 11 a.m.

Losing the first game of a double-elimination tournament isn’t new for the Chargers. In 1994 they lost the first game in the state tournament and went on to win their second title (they also won in ’91 and ‘97).

“We’ve done it before, we can do it again,” Coach Scott Pickler said. “We have to take it inning by inning, and we need someone to step it up.”

Cypress left-hander Ray Aguilar pitched well for 7 1/3 innings Friday, but the Huskies’ right-hander, Andy Torres, was a bit stronger.

Torres (11-3), who also went 7 1/3 innings, gave up two runs on eight hits, striking out six and walking four.

He and a solid East L.A. defense shut down any thoughts of a Charger comeback.

After East L.A. (33-12) took a 1-0 lead in the third, Cypress tied the score in the fourth on Jeff Ruziecki’s sixth home run. But that was as close as the Chargers got.

In the fifth and sixth innings, Cypress had runners on first and second, but Torres worked out of both jams.

“He is a battler,” Pickler said. “We had a couple of situations where we couldn’t get the momentum going.”

East L.A.’s offense knocked out Aguilar in the eighth, when Charlie Valenzuela led off with his 15th home run and Kenny Okamuro followed with a single. Aguilar got Erick Perez to ground out, but Brandon Luna came in to relieve and immediately gave up a two-run home run to Contreras, his second of the game.

The Huskies scored five more runs in the ninth to put the game away.