Riverside Comes Up Short in Ranked Showdown
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
#6 Riverside | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 12 | 0 |
|
#3 Santa Ana | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 16 | 1 |
No. 6-ranked Riverside City College and No. 3-ranked Santa Ana College duked it out once again on Thursday, with the Dons just edging out the Tigers 8-7.
RCC drops to 22-8 overall and 8-3 in the Orange Empire Conference, while SAC improves to 27-2-1 on the year and 10-1 in conference after securing the series win.
Noah Haros led the Tigers with a 3-for-4 performance at the plate with three RBI and one run scored, while Isaac Castanon (2-for-5) and Gavin Egan (2-for-4) also had multiple hits in the game.
Just like in game one, it was more back-and-forth action between the two ranked squads.
Riverside found itself trailing 5-3 heading into the seventh but scored three runs to jump back in front. With two runners on and one out, Bubba Heidler (1-for-5) knocked an RBI base hit before Luis Sosa (1-for-3) scored the tying run off a wild pitch. Grant Gray (1-for-5) then laid down a perfect bunt to score Heidler and put the Tigers up 6-5.
RCC tacked on another run in the eighth off a sacrifice fly from Logan Clear (1-for-2) to try to create some separation.
Santa Ana answered back with a run of its own in the bottom half of the inning before grabbing the walk-off victory with two runs in the ninth.
The top two teams in the conference close out the series back in Riverside on Friday, with first pitch set for 1 p.m.