Baseball opened their first weekend with back-to-back doubleheaders on Feb. 3 to Feb. 4 against San Diego Christian with a 3-1 record.

Opening day started with a Cougars victory for new head Coach Matt Guiliano. In game one of the doubleheader, pitcher Taylor Ahearn threw a complete game victory in the 12-0 win.

With 14 hits and no errors, the Cougars earned the win. The Hawks fell short with just three hits and a total of six errors.

Unfortunately, game two did not end as well. The final score was 4-1, but being that it was an exhibition game, Coach Guiliano was happy to see what his team had to offer.   

“There were a lot of question marks going into the season, ‘what are we?’ I don’t know yet, I saw the first game, we were an offensive team, pitcher pounded the zone and then we came out the second game completely different, so I’m still questioning who we are [as a team],” said Coach Guiliano.

In the first game, pitcher Taylor Ahearn threw a complete game shutout. After being asked if Ahearn has ever thrown a complete game before, he said, “In little league I have, but that was only six innings, not a nine.”  

Feb. 4 was a new day, and the Hawks came ready to fight, giving the Cougars a run for their money.

At the top of the seventh inning and the Cougars down 7-1, Coach Guiliano changed his entire lineup except for the designated hitter.

“My starters needed a little wake up call but as we got going in the second game, we started off slow again, but then the guys made those adjustments… our guys came out and we came back we fought, we stayed in the game.” said Coach Guiliano.

This re-ignited the Cougar’s spark, and after getting three runs on three hits and two walks, it boosted the Cougars three points.

With spirits high the Cougars took advantage of the Hawks’ errors and finally took the lead when Riley Froom hit the ball to centerfield making it to first base with two other Cougars running across home plate.

The scoreboard flashed 9-8 securing the Cougars first win of the day.

The second game of the doubleheader started off slow with the Cougars falling behind once more in the fifth inning until junior Nico Maida hit a double allowing freshman designated hitter, Kevin Britt, to cross home plate tying up the game 5-5. This gave the Cougars enough of a boost for junior Colin Dvorak to hit one right up the middle and get two more runs raising the score 7-5.

Two RBI (Runs batted in) singles by Griffin Teisher and Mark Van Skike gave the Cougars an even bigger lead and ended the game 9-5.

Britt, led the team going 4-for-6 with three runs and two RBIs.

“Our team is very young with a lot of freshman, a lot of sophomores, a lot of question marks going in, but a lot of them were answered especially in the first game, when we had our bench go in… that just shows the depth we have in all the guys [on the team].” said Kevin Britt.

Baseball’s next home game will be doubleheader against Antelope Valley at 11a.m. on Feb. 11.