El Camino College-Compton Center Tartars 2, at Riverside City College Tigers 0 (playoffs)

 

RIVERSIDE – In the opening game of the best two-of-three series, the visiting El Camino College-Compton (ECC-C) Center Tartars pushed across a pair of unearned runs in the top of the eighth inning and went on to tame the host Riverside City College (RCC) Tigers men's baseball team, 2-0, in the opening game of a best-of-three Southern California Regional Playoff series Friday afternoon at the Evans Sports Complex.

 

ECC-Compton (23-15), the second-place team (14-7) in the South Coast Conference and seeded No. 16 in the regional playoffs, showed no fear against the No. 2-seeded Riverside (24-13), the second-place team (13-8) in the Orange Empire Conference, and matched the Tigers pitch for pitch.

 

In the fateful eighth inning, sophomore C Lester Salcedo (Wilmington / Long Beach – Woodrow Wilson HS) sliced a single that dropped just inside the right-field line. Sophomore SS Casey Chenoweth (Tollhouse / Sierra HS) then laid down a sacrifice bunt. RCC sophomore 3B Ricardo Rodriguez (Moreno Valley / Canyon Springs HS) elected to try for a force at second base, but his throw was high and Salcedo was safe. Another sacrifice bunt moved the Tartar runners up a base before sophomore LF Chris Jacobs (Los Angeles / Westchester HS), who was a bit of a jitterbug when he was on the bases, lofted a sacrifice fly to right field to plate Salcedo with the game's first run. Freshman 2B Larry Barazza (Huntington Park / Huntington Park HS) then stroked a RBI single up the middle to score Chenoweth from third for a 2-0 lead.

 

Both runs were unearned off RCC sophomore LHP Kenny Mathews (Diamond Bar / Diamond Bar HS / CSU Fullerton) who went the first eight innings and allowed eight hits and one walk and struck out six, but sustained his first loss of the season (3-0). Compton starting LHP Omar Pelayo (Los Angeles / L.A. Jordan HS), who brought a 3.92 earned run average into the game, went the distance (one walk, seven strikeouts) for the second time this season and improved to 5-4. He allowed six hits, including a bad-hopper which ricocheted off the head of sophomore 1B Juan Avena (Compton / Warren HS) off the bat of freshman RF Joshua Clark (Los Angeles / Hillcrest Christian HS), and went for a double.

 

Barraza and Avena each had two hits for Compton. RCC sophomore 1B Daniel Arellano (Moreno Valley / Canyon Springs HS) and sophomore 2B Brandon Van Horn (La Canada Flintridge / St. Francis HS) each had two hits to lead the Tigers.

 

In the 86-year history of the institution (founded in 1927), Compton is making its fourth playoff appearance (1954, 1956, 2010) since regional and state playoffs were sanctioned in 1950.

 

It was another speedy game which took only 1:50 for the Tigers and Tartars to play. It was RCC's third-fastest game (by time) this season and its fourth sub-two-minute game this season. In 37 games this season, RCC has played 26 of them in 2-1/2 hours or less.

 

Both teams resume play tomorrow, Saturday, May 4, for game two of the series at 12 p.m. RCC would need to win game two to force a game three to be played 30 minutes after game two.