Cerritos College played Santa Ana on Feb. 10, and ended in a disheartening tie of 11-11 (after nine innings) which was a horrible way to end the game.

The MLB overtime rule I’m referring to is the Automatic Runner rule that the MLB had where “all half-innings after the ninth will begin with a runner on second base (via MLB).”

It’s unsure if that overtime rule will come back for the 2022 MLB postseason (if the lockout ends) but it’s something that should be a permanent change.

In an SI article talking about the overtime rules, SI staff weighed in on the rule. Will Laws (SI Employee) said, “I’m fully in favor of the new extra innings rule. Putting a runner on second base means more strategy.”

Another SI writer, Natt Martell also talked about how he loved the extra innings format and he compared it to the college football overtime rule. Michael Shapiro also had no issue with the rule and explained how he, “enjoy(s) the dose of creativity.”

The first score of the Cerritos and Santa Ana game occurred when Sebastian McSherry, the catcher for Santa Ana, hit a home run to left field in the bottom of the second inning.

Cedrick Perez, the shortstop for Santa Ana, hit a two-run home run to right-center in the third inning and it looked like it may be a blowout.

After Andy Vega walked and advanced to second base (after a wild pitch), Lucas Lorgulescu, the designated hitter for Cerritos, hit an RBI double and got Cerritos their first point on the scoreboard in the top of the fourth inning.

Angel Alvarez walked after the RBI double and Luis Chavarin Jr., the third baseman for Cerritos, singled up the middle and resulted in Angel Alvarez scoring. The score is now 3-3 at the top of the fourth, which shows the explosiveness of both teams.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, McSherry walked (and advanced from first to third base) and Austin Haller (second base for Santa Ana) walked.

During the same inning, Kyle Morrell pinch-hit for Ryann Stock (who are both right fielders for Santa Ana) which worked well when he tripped to right center (2 RBI triple).

Cerritos started the top of the ninth with an RBI single up the middle for Chavarin Jr, Bilal Ali (second baseman) scoring an RBI single and Sawyer Chesley (first baseman) hit a single through the right side.

In the same inning, Andy Vega hit an RBI single, Chesley hit an RBI single (his second RBI single) and Chavarin Jr. hit a 2-RBI double (he now has 5 RBI’s).

At the bottom of the ninth, Santa Ana was down 11-6 and they came back to get the score of 11-11 but had a dissatisfying end.

This intense game was a terrible ending for both Santa Ana and Cerritos where the attendees missed a crazy ending, which was robbed.

The MLB and college baseball should permanently use the overtime rules inducted during the pandemic to make baseball quicker and easier for the audiences of today (younger audiences).

All statistics used are from Cerritosfalcons.com, which are hyperlinked.