Posted: May 05, 2013
El Camino-Compton Tartars at Riverside City College Tigers (regional playoffs)
Riverside
(25-13)
8
El Camino-Compton Center
(23-16)
5
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Riverside | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 13 | 2 |
|
El Camino-Compton Center | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 11 | 3 |
El Camino-Compton Center
(24-16-0)
7
Riverside
(25-14-0)
1
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
El Camino-Compton Center | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 12 | 1 |
|
Riverside | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 3 |
RIVERSIDE – Getting its second stellar pitching performance in as many days from the same pitcher, the visiting El Camino College-Compton (ECC-C) Center Tartars won the finale, 7-1, of the best-of-three Southern California Regional Playoff series against the host Riverside City College (RCC) Tigers men's baseball team Saturday afternoon at the Evans Sports Complex.
Riverside (25-14) – the No. 2-seeded team in the Southland – forced a series-deciding game three with an 8-5 win in game two of series earlier Saturday.
ECC-Compton (24-16), the second-place team (14-7) in the South Coast Conference and seeded No. 16 in the regional playoffs, again showed no fear as starting LHP Omar Pelayo (Los Angeles / L.A. Jordan HS), who brought a 3.92 earned run average into the series, went the first 7-2/3 innings Saturday (three walks, four strikeouts) and allowed just one earned run after going the distance (one walk, seven strikeouts) on Friday for the second time this season. With the pair of wins in the span of 27 hours, Pelayo improved to 6-4. He threw 221 pitches, 148 for strikes, over the weekend.
The Tartars broke open a scoreless tie with a pair of unearned runs in the fourth inning when the No. 9 batter, sophomore CF LeJon Baker stroked a two-out, two-run, bases-loaded single. In a four-run sixth, sophomore LF Chris Jacobs (Los Angeles / Westchester HS) had the big blow – a two-run triple – and scored on a suicide squeeze bunt for a 6-0 lead.
Riverside scored what eventually was an earned run in the eighth on a wild pitch to snap Pelayo's streak of 16-2/3 scoreless innings against the Tigers.
Earlier that day, Riverside bounced back from 2-0 and 3-2 deficits with a four-run seventh en route to an season-extending 8-5 win over Compton. Sophomore transfer RHP Edgar Gomez (Indio / Indio HS / Long Beach State) went the first six innings (five runs, three earned) to get credit for the win to improve to 10-3. Freshman RHP Cortland Cox (Alta Loma HS) tossed the final 2-2/3 innings for his second save.
RCC sophomore 3B Ricardo Rodriguez (Moreno Valley / Canyon Springs HS) drilled a two-run double just inside the third-base bag in the fifth inning to tie the game at 2-2 and get the Tigers going.
Freshman SS Nick King (Palm Springs / Palm Springs HS) had three hits in five at bats in Saturday's first game and added two hits in three at bats in the nightcap for Riverside.
In the 86-year history of the institution (founded in 1927), Compton is making its fourth playoff appearance (1954, 1956, 2010) and furthest post-season advance since regional and state playoffs were sanctioned in 1950.