Baldanebro’s Gem Pushes Owls Past Huskies

Monterrey Park, CA - The Citrus College Baseball team improved to 3-1 on the young season on Saturday afternoon at East Los Angeles College. Freshman Roberto Baldanebro continued his hot start to his collegiate career by pitching seven shutout innings, giving up just two hits, and one walk as the Owls pushed past the Huskies 2-0.

 The Owls would get their first of two runs on the day in the top of the second inning. Freshman Dominic Baca would reach first on an error by the ELAC short stop and then advance to second on the overthrow. That brought sophomore Jonathan Ayala to the plate, and he didn't disappoint hitting a single that scored Baca and made it 1-0. 

Baldanebro didn't make really any mistakes on the hill, allowing a runner to reach second base or worse just three times in his seven innings of the work. The first time came in the bottom of the second, after he issued a leadoff walk. A passed ball would lead to the runner reaching second base in that situation, but it was all for naught as Baldanebro got the next two batters to fly out to center field. 

The biggest threat by the Huskies would come in the bottom of the fourth, when East LA led the inning off with one of their two hits, a double. The runner would advance to third after Baldanebro got a fly out to right field, but Baldanebro never panicked getting a groundout to third and a groundout back to himself to end the threat.

After the close call in the fourth, Citrus gave Baldanebro a little more cushion in the top of the fifth. Freshman Jacob Gafford would start it off with a one out single, and then advanced to second after freshman Marcos Campos added a single right behind him. Up came sophomore Rudy Casarez, who hit a third straight single, driving in Gafford to make it 2-0.

With seven sterling innings in the book for Baldanebro, the Owls turned the ball over to sophomore Joseph Morreale. Morreale cruised in the final two innings, striking out two, and giving up just one hit, without a blemish to his name.

At the plate Casarez led the way with a 3 for 3 effort. Campos was 2 for 4. 

With the win Citrus improved to 3-1 on the year. The Owls will be back in action on Tuesday when they travel to San Bernardino Valley College for a 2:00 PM first pitch.