Cypress Loses One Game; Darkness Suspends Second

Cypress College scored six runs in the seventh inning to take a 10-8 lead over El Camino before darkness suspended play Saturday in the Southern California Regional playoffs at Cerritos.

The teams are scheduled to resume play at 9 a.m. today. The winner advances to the final against Cerritos at 11 a.m., and the loser is eliminated.

Earlier Saturday, Cypress had lost to Cerritos, 6-2, in 10 innings, and El Camino had eliminated College of the Canyons, 9-6, in the double-elimination competition.

In the seventh, Cypress’ Paul Bunch led off with a bases-empty home run, his sixth of the season. After Tim Churchill was retired, Jason Friedman hit an inside-the-park home run off Mike Stewart. Friedman drove the ball off the wall in left-center and easily beat the throw home after the ball bounced around in the outfield.

El Camino then brought in left-hander David Seward, who allowed four runs and four hits, including a two-run triple by Steve Gill. Reliever Lucio Chiadez got the final out of the inning, but Cypress led, 10-8.

El Camino had taken a 5-1 lead after three innings before Cypress began to come back. Cypress scored twice in the fourth on an RBI single by Doug Yates and an RBI double by Rod DeYoung. Cypress added another run in the fifth on a home run by Churchill, his ninth of the season, to cut the lead to 5-4.

However, El Camino increased its lead to 8-4 in the fifth inning. Three consecutive hits, including an RBI single by Adrian Lodding, finished Cypress starter Rich Lodding. Reliever Brian Behnke allowed two more runs before getting out of the inning.

Behnke, who allowed two hits in three innings, retired El Camino in the seventh to keep Cypress close.

“We were sloppy early in the game,” said Cypress Coach Scott Pickler. “Give us credit. We battled back after a tough loss in the first game.”

In an earlier game:

Cerritos 6, Cypress 2 (10 innings)--The teams were tied, 2-2, after nine innings, but Cerritos scored four runs in the top of the 10th to advance to the championship game. Rod Benjamin singled to open the 10th against starter and loser Jeff Patterson (6-3).

Darrell Sherman doubled to put runners on second and third. Steve Gill then replaced Patterson, and Todd Guggiana hit a sacrifice fly to score Benjamin, with Sherman moving to third. Mark Nieto and Brian Grebeck walked to load the bases, and pinch-hitter Tim Phillips squeezed in another run. Perry Sanchez singled in the final two runs.