Cypress Erupts for 15 Runs in Win Over Grossmont

Ten Chargers combined for 18 hits in 15-8 victory over Grossmont College.

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Rowan Wick

El Cajon, Calif. - Cypress College baseball bounced back from a one-run performance on Friday, with an 18 hit offensive explosion against Grossmont College, in a 15-8 non-conference win on the road Saturday afternoon.

The Chargers' 18-hit day at the plate upped their previous season-high total of 16 hits set in their season opening, 18-4, rout of San Bernardino Valley. Cypress (7-2) also set season-high marks in at-bats (44) and doubles (5) against the Griffins (3-5). In both Charger victories over SBVC and Grossmont, nine of the ten Chargers to hit safely were the same.

On the mound, Cypress head coach Scott Pickler used five different pitchers, that combined for 10 strikeouts and eight runs allowed on 11 hits. Starting pitcher Raleigh Rushing gave up three runs - all earned - while fanning six in 4.1 innings.

Bryson Kauhaahaa picked up his first win as a Charger after coming in to pitch in the bottom of the eighth inning with the Chargers ahead 7-6. After allowing Grossmont to tie the game at 7-7, centerfielder Anthony Razo got Cypress out of the inning with a bullet from center that cut down the Griffins' baserunner at the plate.

For Kauhaahaa, the timing couldn't have been better, as the Charger bats came alive in the top of the ninth inning to blow the game wide open with an eight-run at-bat that put Cypress out in front or good.

Dylan Moore (3 for 5, 2 Runs, 1 RBI), and Rowan Wick (3 for 5, 1 Run, 2 RBI) led the Cypress hit parade with a combined six hits at the plate. Jacob MacWilliam (2 for 4, 4 RBI, 1 Run) finished with a team-high four runs batted in, while Razo (2 for 4, 4 Runs) accounted for four of Cypress College's 15 runs by himself - including two in the top of the ninth.

The Chargers went up 2-0 in the top of third inning when Moore doubled in Razo for Cypress' first run of the game. Moore would eventually come around to score on a single to center by Jonathan Torres (2 for 5, 2 Runs, 2 RBI).

In the bottom of the fifth, Grossmont put together a five-run rally to take its only lead of the ballgame at 5-2, but Cypress would answer back in the top half of the sixth with an RBI sac fly by MacWilliam that brought in Torres, and a two-run homer by Wick that tied the game at 5-5.

Jake Clark (2 for 2, 2 RBI, 2 Runs), and MacWilliam drove in a pair of runs in the top of the seventh to give Cypress a 7-5 lead, but this time it was the Griffins turn to answer back with two runs of their own in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game at 7-7.

In the top of the ninth inning, the Chargers put on a hitting clinic that began with Razo's leadoff base hit. That would would be the first of six straight hits for Cypress in the inning, including a pair of singles by Razo and Torres, and four doubles by Moore, Clark, Parker Starr (1 for 5, 1 Run, 1 RBI) and MacWilliam.

All six players would come around to score. Later in the inning, Razo came around to score for the second time in the inning when Cypress relief pitcher Darren Gidley came through with an RBI pinch-hit single up the middle. Pinch hitter Cody Webster would account for the other Cypress run in the ninth that made it a 15-7 game heading to the Griffins final at bat.

Grossmont would get one back, but that was it as the Chargers held on for the 15-8 victory on the road.

Cypress returns home to take on El Camino College at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, February 21.