Tigers Secure OEC Victory Over Pirates
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
#15 Orange Coast | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 5 |
|
#9 Riverside | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | X | 10 | 11 | 2 |
No. 9-ranked Riverside City College secured the Orange Empire Conference series victory over No. 15-ranked Orange Coast College on Thursday with a 10-5 victory at home.
The Tigers improve to 24-9 on the year and 10-4 in conference (back into second place), while the Pirates drop to 18-14 overall, 6-8 in the OEC.
Several Tigers finished with two hits in the game, including Aiden Erlandsen (2-for-5), Johnny Alley (2-for-5) and Isaiah Crowe (2-for-2).
RCC took a quick 1-0 lead in the second inning of action off a sacrifice fly from Luis Sosa (1-for-3), before OCC tied the game in its next chance at the plate.
The Tigers then scored three runs in the third, two in the fifth, and one in the seventh to create some separation before all but sealing the victory in the bottom of the eighth.
With two outs and two runners in scoring position, Grant Gray (1-for-1) stepped up to the plate and drilled a first-pitch double to score both Tigers, before coming home on a Riki Kubota (1-for-1) double.
Jaden McNeely picked up the win on the mound for RCC, throwing 5.1 innings of action with two strikeouts. Charlie Ruggles added two scoreless innings, and Jack Wheaton closed it off with one strikeout in the final inning of action.
RCC and OCC close out the series back on the Pirates' turf on Friday at 12 p.m. after potential rain moved the game up from Saturday.