Tommy Cerecedes
Ayala, Senior
Expectations were high for the Ayala baseball team in 2021 with its deep lineup and quality pitching.
There was no shame for senior Tommy Cerecedes to be the No. 2 starting pitcher for a team expected to contend for Palomares League and CIF-SS titles.
But it was enough to motivate him to be the No. 1.
“I thought, ‘I’m the senior. I’m going to have to prove you wrong.’ I bulked up a little bit. I saw the fruits of my labor this season,” Cerecedes said.
The fruits of his labor were impressive: an 11-1 record, a 1.56 ERA, with 39 strikeouts and just eight walks in 71-plus innings, earning him Inland player of the year honors.
“We knew he had the potential to be good,” Ayala coach Chris Vogt said. “But I don’t think anybody expected this.”
Cerecedes didn’t lose a game until the last game of the season — the CIF State regional final against JSerra.
He felt the addition of a slider to his arsenal of a fastball, changeup and curveball helped his progression.
“I definitely upped my velocity by a few miles per hour,” he said. “I had also learned a new pitch this summer, my slider. Obviously it moves differently from my curveball. It was an out pitch for me.”
He felt his breakout game was in the middle of a six-start stretch (31 innings) in which he did not allow an earned run — a four-hitter in a 3-0 win over Glendora on May 12.
“That was a big battle of the arms,” he said. “It was my first complete game I had thrown. First game they didn’t want to take me out.”
Cerecedes said he was recruited by multiple NAIA schools, but chose to stay closer to home and will play at Chaffey College.
His future seems bright, especially for someone who didn’t start pitching until the eighth grade. He said he owes a lot of his success to his teammates.
“Not only were our bats almost always hot, but our defense was always solid,” Cerecedes said in a text. “I knew that every time the ball was hit anywhere on the field, my guys would make a play. They were almost always perfect and they made pitching very easy for me.”