PHOTO BY: RICHARD NGUYEN
STORY BY: BRANDON GUIJARRO
STAFF WRITER
The Cypress Chargers defeated the Merced Blue Devils 21-17 on Feb 18th, ending their five-game losing streak.
Edgar Rosales was locked in at the plate, going 5-for-5 with a 2B, HR, and 3 RBI. Rosales scored four runs, and was just a triple shy of the cycle, as Merced had no answer for him all afternoon.
“These past few games I’ve been starting to find myself, just really getting my timing down. Today I just went in there with no thoughts about my hitting, just see the ball- hit the ball, and it worked out,” said Rosales.
Head Coach Anthony Hutting praised his shortstop for his performance against the Blue Devils.
“Edgar was really good today and has been for the good part of the year,” coach Hutting said. “It was good to see him take some good swings and got rewarded for them. Very good day by Edgar, it was impressive”.
Eddie Hacopian added three hits and four RBI including a home run as the Chargers improved to 5-6 on the season. Brenden Harris also had three hits including two RBI before leaving the game due to injury. Nick Mascaro came into the game to replace the injured Harris and delivered a two-run home run. Peter Werth and Luke Honikel both launched solo shots for Cypress, in a game that included a total of a season-high five home runs, with 21 runs scored and 23 hits for The Chargers.
The game stood at 1-1 after one inning, then Cypress opened up their lead in the bottom of the second, scoring five runs which included back to back home runs by Hacopian and Honikel. Cypress led 6-1 after two innings.
Merced answered back by driving in two runs in the top of the third, but The Chargers’ hot bats continued to roll, as Cypress scored six runs in the bottom half of the third, opening up their lead to 12-3.
The Blue Devils began to cut into the lead in the top of the fourth as they scored five runs, making it a 12-8 game, as errors by Cypress cost them runs to come across the plate.
Mascaro and Werth crushed back-to-back home runs in the bottom of fifth, followed by Rosales coming in to score later in the inning. Cypress led 16-9 after 5 innings.
Cypress and Merced would both go on to score four runs in the sixth inning.
The Blue Devils tacked on two runs in the seventh and added two more in the eighth, making it only a three run deficit for them.
Hacopian drove in the last run of the ballgame on a double which gave Cypress a 21-17 win over Merced.
“It was good to see the offense come to life a little bit, we haven’t been going real good offensively of late. It was good to see us wake up a little bit and provide some run support for our pitching staff, who up until today had been pitching really well,” said Hutting.
Pitching was an issue for both ballclubs as they each allowed their season-high in runs.
“We haven’t really put together a game yet where we’ve been really good in all facets of the game. I’m really just looking to continue to get better and continue taking some positive strides forward and play more consistent, better baseball,” said Hutting.
The Chargers have an upcoming three-game homestand where they look to get a win streak going and keep their hot bats rolling.
