For one night, though, La Mirada was able to breeze and get in the backups, although for a shorter period of time than expected as coach Kim Brooks had a lengthy discussion with the umpires over why the rarely-used mercy rule was exercised.
Senior catcher Ray Chacon, after months of heavy weightlifting for the football team and in his preparation for baseball season, showed off his massive power with a three-run, 380-foot bomb over the leftfield fence on the first pitch he saw to complete the scoring and give his team the 10-run advantage in the fifth.
Leadoff hitter Jesse McHenry, a senior centerfielder, reached base all four times and scored three runs, and junior rightfielder Nicko Lancaster (the team's best bunter) executed two perfect sacrifices and then showed his long ball prowess by crushing a two-run double over the centerfielder's head in the fifth to pace the offense.
Senior lefthander Karl Perez, a transfer, made his debut on the hill for the Blue and Gold and put in a solid four innings. He allowed five hits and struck out five, including the first two batters in his final stanza before the Colts struck for a pair behind a walk, a triple and a double.
Junior righthander Jordan Rosenberg closed off with a perfect fifth with two strikeouts.
Senior leftfielder Justin Torres absolutely mashed a ball over the shortstop's head that would have been an inside the park homer if there wasn't zero outs in the first inning, settling for a triple to bring in three runs. The ball rolled all the way to the very far fence in leftcenter as the Division I running back-to-be steamrolled around the basepaths.
Senior thirdbaseman Kyle Harper then brought in Torres with the inning's sixth run on a sacrifice fly to deep rightfield. Harper also ignited a two-out, six-run rally in the fifth with a blooper down the leftfield line, followed by a run-scoring, opposite-field double from senior secondbaseman Garrin Haile.
Senior firstbaseman Mike Piazza sat out his second straight contest with various lower body ailments but will hopefully return to help out in Thursday's big undertaking against Lakewood.
