CJ Berthon had a season high six RBIs, Brody Cuellar drove in four and Logan Hunt bounced back from his last outing as the Cerritos College Falcons baseball team routed the Rio Hondo College Roadrunners 18-1 on April 4.
Berthon went 4 for 6 and finished the game a home run shy of the cycle. His three-run triple in the sixth inning put the Birds up 9-0 in the sixth inning before doubling home two more runners in the eighth inning.
“I felt really good in the box. I felt like everything was slowed down,” he said. “Just getting my pitch early and being on time for it and putting a good swing on it.”
Cerritos head coach Nate Fernley said Berthon was benched for his earlier season struggles and praised Berthon’s recent surge since returning to the starting lineup.
Since March 19, the 6-foot-3 first baseman is 17 for 33 (.515), 11 extra-base hits, 14 RBIs and has hit safely in all eight games.
Cuellar’s double in the third inning drove in the first run in a four run frame. The right-handed designated hitter followed up his teammate in the seventh inning with another three-RBI triple that highlighted what was a seven-run inning for Cerritos.
“I’m not trying to do too much, I’m not trying to get too big,” Cuellar said. “Sometimes I get in trouble when I get too big with my swings. So, it’s just [about] staying in my approach.”
Cuellar has been a consistent part of the Birds lineup all season. He leads the baseball team with 39 RBIs and 24 bases on balls and is batting .337 and ranks third on his team with a 1.035 on-base plus slugging.
Cuellar said everything that happens on the field for him is a mental thing, knowing he’s done all of the right preparation beforehand and added that his relationship with God keeps him going.
He said, “I know that it starts with my meals, my stretching, my work ethic and my relationship with him, there’s nothing that’s going to stop me.”
Hunt pitched seven quality innings coming off a start in which he didn’t make it out of the third inning. Hunt allowed one run on four hits and recorded three strikeouts.
With this win, Cerritos has improved to 12-6 and currently sit in third place in the South Coast Conference standings as they look ahead to a three-game series against first place El Camino College, 13-2, beginning on April 7.
Fernley said, “The test for us is going to be to stay consistent. We ended up outscoring [Rio Hondo] by 20 runs this series, but came away with two wins instead of three.”
He added, “if we can kind of not get caught up in who we’re playing or what series this is and just do the things we’ve been training to do, I think we’ll be just fine.”
