Camarena Throws One-Hitter as Warriors Clinch Conference Title

TORRANCE, Calif. - The El Camino College Warriors baseball team won their seventh South Coast Conference title and first title under second year head coach Grant Palmer after defeating the Pasadena City College Lancers 7-0 on Friday afternoon in the regular season finale at Warrior Field.

The Warriors (33-7 overall) finished South Coast Conference play with a 19-5 record. The Warriors and Mt. Sac Mounties finished Co-Champions with the same conference record but the Warriors won the series over Mt. Sac to claim the higher seed over the Mounties in next week's playoff bracket.

The series finale between the Warriors and Lancers was an excellent pitching duel for the first six innings. Anthony Camarena flirted with a complete game no-hitter after giving up one hit and allowed three walks and struck out five over nine innings. Jonathan Bracamonte had given up just one run through six innings before he ran out of gas in the seventh inning as hit pitch count eclipsed the 100 pitches mark. Bracamonte's final line was 6.2 innings and five runs along with 10 hits, one walk, and five strikeouts.

The Warriors scored first after taking a 1-0 lead in the second inning. The Warriors got three straight hits with two outs from Nolan Fox, Dane Rhodes, and Nathan Rivera. Nolan Fox scored the first run of the game as Rivera hit a base hit up the middle.

In the top of the fourth inning the Lancers got three runners on base on via walks but Camarena escaped the jam by inducing a double play to get out of the inning unscathed.

The Warriors finally broke open the game in the bottom of the seventh inning with five runs. Nathan Rivera led the charge after getting on base via a hit by pitch with one out. Slater Nunez hit a soft grounder that stayed fair down the third base line to put two runners on. The Warriors executed a double steal and the Lancers catcher airmailed the ball to third into the outfield which allowed Rivera to score and make it a 2-0 game.

With two outs, Dylan Mares was hit by a pitch to put runners on the corners. Gil Solis singled through the right side to score Nunez and make it a 3-0 game. The Lancers went to reliever Alex Myers who gave up a triple to left center to Johnny Munoz that scored Mares and Solis to make it 5-0. Kai Nagashima hit a knock into left field to score Munoz to make it a 6-0 game.

After the long inning from the Warriors offense, the Lancers broke the no-hitter in the top of the eighth as Logan Parker broke it up with a base hit on a ball that deflected off Camarena's glove to Slater Nunez. Nunez fired the ball over to first base where it was a bang bang play that the first base umpire ruled Parker safe.

Camarena didn't let it phase him as he got a fly out and two grounders to end the frame for the Lancers in the eighth.  

The Warriors added one more insurance run in the eight inning as Caden Lewis tripled in Slater Nunez to make it a 7-0 game.

Entering the final inning with 87 pitches, Camarena got two ground outs and a flyout on pitch number 100 to earn his first complete game for the Warriors.

The Warriors await their seeding and regional pairings for the 3C2A Socal Regional Brackets that will come out over the weekend.