Grand slam propels Cerritos past Downey, 10-0
Downey junior pitcher Michael Reyes (11) is shown in action against Cerritos on Monday March 6. Downey lost, 10-0. (Photo by Alexandra Diaz)
DOWNEY – After starting the season with four straight wins, the Downey High School Baseball team lost three consecutive games, with the latest loss, a 10-0 setback to visiting Cerritos Monday (March 6).
The Vikings broke the losing streak with a 5-1 win Wednesday (March 8) over Bellflower in the opening game of the Suburban Valley Conference, Gateway League game.
Junior pitcher Michael Reyes, who suffered the loss to Cerritos on Monday, won his third game of the season in the Bellflower win.
Downey faced Cerritos in the second meeting in a week on Thursday (results not available at press time).
In the first meeting of the home-and-home series with Cerritos on Monday, the Vikings were held to just two hits in the shutout loss.
Senior first baseman Matthew Medina and sophomore third baseman Marcos Quinonez were the only two Vikings with a hit – both singles.
On the mound and keeping the Vikings in check was Cerritos junior Johann Gibbs with five innings of nearly flawless pitching.
The right hander had six strikeouts and allowed only two Downey base runners to get into scoring position at second base.
“After a rough game at El Rancho (12-7 loss), I was excited to get back on the mound and work for my team.” Gibbs said.
“After showing (the Downey batters) them the curveball, I felt like they were sitting on that and I could come out with my fastball and just over power them at the end.
“After the first inning I knew they wouldn’t be able to find it against me. (The win) was a big motivator and a big boost for our team chemistry.”
Gibbs, who has three sisters all playing college sports, retired the first six batters before giving up his only hit in the game to open the third inning. He gave up a walk, but got out of the inning.
In his next two innings of work, Gibbs retired six of eight batters, which included only one player reaching second base.
Leading the way for the Dons offensively was senior second baseman Paul Kim (2 for 3, 4 RBIs) with two hits, which included a single and a grand slam in a 6-run seventh inning.
“It (grand slam) felt really nice because I’ve been struggling a little bit this year,” Kim said. “But then I finally started working on my swing and it started working out.
“This game was a real motivation booster for us, especially the amount of runs we put up against a quality team. I knew my boys were going to hype me up in the dugout.”
Leading the team in hits in the game was senior first baseman Raymond Sierra (3 for 4) with two singles, a double and a run scored.
With two hits was sophomore right fielder Braxton Reed (2 for 3), with a double, a single, stolen base and an RBI.
With Downey trailing 1-0 in the second inning, after Medina singled, he advanced to second after a walk to senior right fielder Matthew Garcia but was left stranded after a fly out and a strike out.
Junior third baseman Carter Chi had only one hit, but it was a two-run single in the Cerritos third inning, scoring his brother Dalton Chi and Gibbs for the early, 3-0 lead.
Carter Chi, after moving over to third on singles by Sierra and Reed, came home on a squeeze play for the fourth run of the game for the Dons.
In Gibbs’ last inning of work, Reyes opened the bottom of the fifth with a walk and a sacrifice by Medina, but was left stranded.
For the third time in the game, the Vikings had a runner in scoring position again in the sixth inning after a walk to senior centerfielder Angel Garcia, who moved to second on a single by Quinonez. A strikeout ended the inning for Downey.
The Dons exploded for six runs in the top of the seventh inning, led by Kims grand slam. Four walks were handed to the Dons and three of them – Dalton Chi, Reed and junior Jonathan Masella scored.
“It was a great bounce-back win for us,” said first-year Cerritos coach Chris Masella. He was referring to their game prior to the Downey game where the Dons trailed 12-0 before climbing back into the game with seven runs.
“We just wanted to ride Johann (Gibbs) as far as we can, and I wanted to get Ray (Sierra) in. I didn’t want to push (Gibbs) too far. I thought he did really well.”
In the Bellflower win, the Vikings scored four runs in the first two innings and went on to win, 5-1.
Leading the way for Downey was Medina (2 for 3), with two doubles.
The Vikings, who improved to 5-3 before the game on Thursday against Cerritos again, had one hit each in the game by Fabian Lopez, Matthew Garcia and Aaron Torres.
Reyes went the distance, scattering six hits, one run and struck out five Cerritos batters.