Griffins advance to Super Regionals with sweep of Cerritos

2016 GROSSMONT COLLEGE BASEBALL

 

By Chris Davis
© East County Sports.com

 

EL CAJON (5-9-16) — There is the easy way and then there is the hard way.  The fifth seed Grossmont College Griffins chose both ways on Sunday (May 8) as they defeated the 12 seed Cerritos College 3-2 and 6-2 to win the CCCAA Regional round at Noel Michelsen Field and move onto the Super Regionals.

 

The hard way came actually on Saturday (May 7) when the Griffins (29-10) lost the first game of the three game series.

 

DONAVON McCRYSTAL (9-0, West Hills) continued his perfect season when he was awarded the win in the first game of the day.

 

CABOT VAN TIL (Patrick Henry) started the day off with a single to right field as the Griffins were the designated visiting team in game two of the series.  TANNER PERRY (Steele Canyon) singled to left field moving Van Til all the way to third.  NOAH STROHL (La Jolla) knocked in Van Til with a single to right field for a 1-0 Griffin lead.

 

One inning later, ROBERT BOSTEDT (Granite Hills) was hit by a pitch.  ANDRES RIOS (Mater Dei, San Diego), who was not eligible for game one of the series, made his Regional debut with a double down the left field line.  Bostedt made it to third on the hit.  JUSTEN BURKEY (San Pasqual) hit a sacrifice fly to right allowing Bostedt to tag and score to make it 2-0 in the Green and Golds favor.

 

Cerritos (24-15) scored their first run of the game in the bottom of the third to make it 2-1 GC.

 

Grossmont came right back in the top of the fourth with their third run.  With one out, Burkey doubled down the left field line.  MICHAEL DIFFLEY (Granite Hills) pushed Burkey to third on a ground out.  Van Til reached on an error, that allowed Burkey to score making it 3-1 Grossmont.

 

Cerritos saw their shortstop hit a solo home run to left field to close out the scoring.  AARON CROSS (Mater Dei, Orange County) came in for the “six out” save to force the third game.

 

The Falcons scored in the top of the first to take the early lead at 1-0.

 

The third inning saw Rios tie the game up with his fourth home run to lead things off.  Burkey reached on a throwing error that allowed him to get to second.  A sacrifice bunt by Diffley pushed Burkey to third.  Van Til singled to left scoring Burkey and a 2-1 lead.  Things would continue to get better for Grossmont as Perry reached on a throwing error by the pitcher.  Van Til moved to second on the throwing error.  Strohl walked to load the bases up.  The walks were not done as Bostedt also was issued a free pass to push Van Til and a 3-1 lead after four innings.

 

Things continued rolling in the fourth for the Griffins.  Mitchell lead off the inning with an error by Cerritos.  Rios singled to left moving Mitchell to second.  Burkey sacrificed himself to put Rios and Mitchell on second and third respectfully.  Diffley doubled to left field scoring Mitchell and Rios on third.  After a pitching change, Van Til laid down a safety squeeze pushing Diffley to third and scoring Rios for a 5-1 lead for Grossmont.

 

Cerritos scored once in the top of the fifth to close within 5-2.  Unfortunately for Cerritos, that is as close as they would get.

 

In the bottom of the sixth Van Til drove in Burkey who reached via a double to right field to close out the scoring.

 

After the top two seeds were defeated this weekend, the Griffins will be hosting in the Super Regional round this coming weekend.  Nine seed Bakersfield (28-10) took their series against the eight seed Long Beach City College.

 

The Super Regional will be a best-of-three series played over the course of Friday, Saturday and Sunday (May 13-15) with single games played on each day.  Game times are still being discussed by the Grossmont athletic department, but is expected to be 2:00 p.m. each day.

 

 

Grossmont  3

Cerritos  2

 

Cerritos  2

Grossmont  6

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