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Lancers baseball suffered their fourth consecutive loss Tuesday on the road against the Cerritos College Falcons, falling to 1-12 in the South Coast Conference play and 4-20 overall for the 2014 season.

Lancers second baseman Eric Grajeda, 27, jumps out of the way after tagging out LA Harbor base runner at Brookside park Jackie Robinson memorial field on Thursday, March 27, 2014. PCC Lancers lost to LA Harbor college 14-2. (Andrew French/Courier)
Lancers second baseman Eric Grajeda, 27, jumps out of the way after tagging out LA Harbor base runner at Brookside park Jackie Robinson memorial field on Thursday, March 27, 2014. PCC Lancers lost to LA Harbor college 14-2. (Andrew French/Courier)

Despite a brilliant pitching performance from Lancers freshman starting pitcher Jason Marquez, the offense was unable to take advantage of the opportunities presented to them against Cerritos and PCC ultimately lost 4-2. Marquez pitched eight innings and had four strikeouts, allowing four runs with only three runs earned in the tough loss.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say it was my best start because there’s always something you can take from the game you can improve on,” said Marquez. “My team did the job of giving me the lead, and my job as a pitcher should be to keep my team in the game and protect a lead, even if it’s just one run.”

The Lancers were able to load the bases three times during the game in the second, third and fifth innings, but were unable to capitalize nearly as much as they wanted to with the golden opportunities presented to them.

“It can be very disappointing that we can’t execute,” said freshman center fielder P.J. DeZotell. “We don’t always have opportunities to score and when we have runners on and fail to score them, it gets pretty frustrating.”

Down 1-0 in the top of the second inning, the Lancers were able to load the bases with nobody out. Freshman designated hitter Nick Perez grounded into a double play, but freshman catcher Macrin Gallardo was able to score on the play to knot the score at 1-1.

In the third inning, PCC was able to load the bases yet again and Gallardo came to the plate with the chance to cash in more runs for the Lancers. Unfortunately, he grounded into a double play to end the inning as Pasadena would come away with no runs in the inning.

The Lancers managed to take the lead in the top of the top of the fifth inning. With the bases loaded yet again and nobody out, DeZotell hit a sacrifice fly to score freshman third baseman Eric Grajeda, giving PCC a 2-1 lead.

DeZotell and Grajeda, along with sophomore second baseman Kai Nakamura, each had two hits on the day. Despite only scoring two runs in the loss, the Lancers tallied 10 hits compared to the nine hits by the Falcons.

“We need to do a better job of getting runners on and hitting them in,” said DeZotell. “Our defense needs to stay crisp and not give up any more free base runners.”

This was the last damage the Lancers could do on offense, as Cerritos would take the lead in the bottom of the sixth inning with consecutive RBI singles. In the top of the eighth inning down 3-2, the Lancers would put runners on first and second base after singles by Gallardo and Nakamura. No runs were cashed in though, as sophomore catcher Jason Clark flied out and freshman right fielder Dylan Kicken struck out to end the threat.

PCC looks to put forward a more complete effort on Thursday as they host Cerritos at Jackie Robinson Memorial Field. The first pitch will be at 2:30 p.m.

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