Cypress Calif. - The Cypress College baseball team struggled to get going in game one of their best-of-three regional playoff series against the Fullerton Hornets on Friday afternoon. The Chargers now trail 0-1 in the series after a 6-5 loss and will have to win back to back games on Saturday in order to move on to the Super Regionals.
The Hornets got going quickly with two runs scored in the top of the first inning, followed by one run in the second, and another two runs in the fourth to take a 5-0 lead over Cypress heading into the fifth inning. Chargers DH Austin Case (1-for-3) scored on a Grant Mayeaux ground out to put Cypress on the board. Fullerton's Justin Row (3-for-5) responded with an RBI single in the top of the sixth to make it a 6-1 game. However, the Chargers made it interesting in the bottom of the sixth after John Santospago (3-for-4) hit a three RBI double to give the Chargers some life. Trailing 6-4 in the bottom of the ninth inning, Cypress right fielder Aaron Case (1-for-4) hit a sacrifice to score pinch runner Nathan Kuchta. The Chargers were unable to come up with the game tying run and Fullerton would go on to defeat Cypress 6-5. Dylan Prohoroff (10-3) got the win for the Hornets after allowing four runs and seven hits in 8.2 innings pitched. Jake Lyons earned his first save of the season for the Hornets after coming in to collect the final out of the game. Chargers pitcher Nathan Kuchta (9-2) received his second loss of the season after allowing 13 hits and six runs in a complete nine innings.
Game two of the regional playoff will be held at Cypress College on Saturday, May 2 at 11:00am and (if necessary) game three is scheduled for May 2 at 2:00pm.
