The Etiwanda baseball team collected 17 hits and cruised to a 15-2 victory over Chaffey in the championship game of the Cougar Classic on Friday at Rancho Cucamonga High School.
Etiwanda (8-2) outscored its five opponents in the event 87-10.
The beneficiary of the last offensive outburst was starting pitcher Marcus Johnson, who went four scoreless innings, giving up just one hit. He won two games in the tournament.
Senior catcher Chris Jimenez led the offense, going 4 for 4 with four RBIs, highlighted by a triple and a home run. Junior second baseman Dalton Ponce also came up big going 3 for 4 playing in place of injured starter Cody Freeman,
The outcome was hardly in doubt after Etiwanda pushed across three in the first inning, three in the second and five in the third to take a commanding 11-0 lead.
Chaffey’s two runs came in the fifth inning. The Tigers (6-2) had a good tournament with quality wins over Carter and Rancho Cucamonga to get to the championship game.
The loss of Freeman was the biggest disappointment in the stellar showing. Coach Don Furnald said his sophomore second baseman was hit in the face by an 87-mile per hour fastball in Thursday’s semifinal. He feared Freeman had broken his jaw. That was not the case but Freeman did need oral surgery.
Furnald said he has no idea when Freeman will be able to return.
