No. 6 Tigers Bang Out 13 Runs in Conference Win over IVC

The No. 6 Riverside City College baseball team returned to Evans Sports Complex on Tuesday afternoon for an Orange Empire Conference (OEC) showdown against the Irvine Valley College Lasers. It was an offensive shootout with the Tigers grabbing an early 10-run lead. The Lasers trimmed the deficit to two after a strong fifth inning, but three more runs from Riverside in the sixth and sevnth frames led to a 13-8 victory.

Riverside plated 10 runs through the first four innings highlighted by a five spot in the bottom of the fourth inning. After sophomore catcher Andrew Jurado (Riverside, CA) kicked off the inning with a standup double and promptly scored on a two-bagger from freshman right fielder Junior Coleman (San Diego, CA).  Freshman first baseman Dylan Kanoho (Honolulu, HI) followed with a perfectly placed bunt down the third base line, thus forcing a rushed throw to score Coleman. Freshman left fielder Joseph Hodapp (Murrieta, CA) drew a walk the next at bat to plate freshman third baseman Jacob Rodriguez (Walnut, CA).

Sophomore pitcher Daniel Martinez (Riverside, CA) continued the scoring trend by launching a sacrifice fly out to left field to notch an RBI, backed by a single up the middle from sophomore second baseman Diego Guerrero (Maracaibo, Venezuela) to score Hodapp leading to the 10-0 advantage.

D. Martinez climbed the hill for the start and continued to shove it. He blanked the Lasers for the opening four frames while striking out four batters.

Despite the dominant lead, IVC began to chip away at the lead and scored eight runs in the fifth and sixth innings combined to trim the deficit to two runs leading into the bottom of the sixth inning.

Coleman came through with a two-RBI double with two outs in the bottom of the sixth, scoring sophomore center fielder Erick Rayford (Chino Hills, CA) and D. Martinez, to add a set of insurance runs. Sophomore shortstop Shane Martinez (Riverside, CA) followed in the bottom of the eighth inning with a two-RBI double of his own leading to a 13-8 victory.

D. Martinez picked up his fifth win of the year after tossing 4.1 innings and fanning five batters. Freshman reliever Alexander Salazar (Ohmi, Japan) threw the final 3.2 innings and allowed two hits and struck out a pair.

S. Martinez finished the day going 3-for-5 with two doubles and three RBI, while Rodriguez went 3-for-5 with a pair of doubles. Kanoho went 2-for-4 with a double and three runs scored.

The Tigers (17-7, 4-3 OEC) will travel to Irvine Valley tomorrow to face off against the Lasers at 3 p.m. The game was originally scheduled for Thursday, but has been moved up due to impending weather.