Hamm, Casanova Lift Warriors to Sweep of Pasadena, Advance to Next Round

TORRANCE, Calif. – For the first time since 2010, El Camino College has advanced past the California Community College Baseball Southern California Super Regional round after sweeping past Pasadena, 9-2, Saturday afternoon at Warrior Field.

The Warriors (37-8) will await the result of the series between No. 1 seed Orange Coast College and No. 14 seed Santa Ana. Those two teams will play a winner-take-all game three on Sunday afternoon. Should OCC win, the Warriors will take on the Pirates on the road in the CCCAA Baseball Southern California Sectionals next week. If Santa Ana wins, ECC will head to No. 4 seed Long Beach City, which finished off a sweep over L.A. Mission on Saturday afternoon.

Right-hander Cassius Hamm was excellent on the mound for the Warriors, picking up his 11th victory of the season. He went seven and 1/3 innings and allowed just one run on six hits. He walked one and struck out 11.

Reliever Jake Carr pitched the rest of the way as he allowed a run on two hits and struck out one.

At the dish, the Warriors hammered Pasadena (26-15) pitching, knocking out 18 hits in all. Casanova led the way as he went 4-for-5 with a double, three runs scored and one RBI. Ty Conrad was 3-for-5 with two runs scored while Hunter Lewis was 3-for-5 as well with a double. Connor Underwood and Noah Barba also had multi-hit games.

Overall, eight of the Warriors nine starters registered an RBI on the day and every starter had at least one hit.

Race Gardner took the loss on the mound for the Lancers, allowing five runs on nine hits. Nick Esparza fared a little better, tossing five and 2/3 innings of relief. He allowed four runs, three earned on nine hits but also struck out nine Warriors on the day.

For the second straight day, the Warriors jumped out to a quick lead in the first inning. Casanova led off the game with a double to center field. Conrad immediately cashed him in with a double of his own to left center and the Warriors held a quick 1-0 lead after one.

In the bottom of the second, the Lancers threatened to tie things up as they loaded the bases against Hamm with just one out. But Hamm struck out Jared Esquivel for the second out and then ended the threat by getting Andres Kim to line out to first.

It was a critical moment as the Warriors added another run in the third and then put the game away with three runs in the fourth inning, getting an RBI single from Wissler, RBI double from Lewis and a sacrifice fly from Darian Sylvester to make it 5-0.

Hamm, meanwhile, retired 13 of the next 14 Lancers he faced before a single by Brett Wheat in the seventh inning put an end to his day on the mound.

The Warriors eventually made it 9-0 before the Lancers scored their first run in the eighth on a home run by Kim. The Lancers loaded the bases in the ninth with no outs but Carr induced a double play from Lancers leading hitter Jeremy Conant and then Alex Briggs popped up to second to end the game and clinch the victory for ECC.

Notes: Casanova went 7-for-9 (.778) in the two-game series against Pasadena, scoring six runs with a double and one RBI and posting a 1.707 OPS. In five postseason games, Casanova is batting .550 (11-for-20) with 10 runs scored, two doubles, one home run and four RBI with a 1.454 OPS…Hamm recorded his sixth double-digit strikeout performance of the season and now has 121 punch-outs on the year, the second most in the state… Underwood and Eastburn each extended their hitting streaks to nine games while Casanova has hit safely in six straight.