No 10 Riverside Walks It Off against Santa Barbara

The No. 10 Riverside City College baseball team hosted the Santa Barbara City College Vaqueros in non-conference action Tuesday evening in hopes to reel in their third win in four games. After the Tigers jumped out to an early 5-0 lead, Santa Barbara remained resilient and tied the contest up at five-all setting the stage for late-game drama. Riverside came through in the bottom of the ninth and loaded the bases for freshman first baseman Dylan Kanoho (Honolulu, HI). He came through when the lights shine bright by launching a sacrifice fly out to right field to push across the winning run.

Despite Riverside jumping on the Vaqueros early on highlighted by a towering two-run jack over the left-field wall from freshman catcher John McKee (Redlands, CA) in the bottom of the second inning, Riverside was blanked the following six innings despite threatening in numerous situations. With the offense in a sudden slump, it was sophomore southpaw Graham Kuck (Corona, CA) who kept the Tigers in the game.

Kuck entered into the game in the top of the eighth inning with Santa Barbara threatening with runners on first and second with one out. He proceeded to strikeout the first batter he faced, followed by a forcing a pop out in foul territory to end the inning. He backed his eighth inning showing by retiring the side in order in the bottom of the ninth to set the offense up for a walk off scenario.

Freshman backstop Mario Gonzalez (Fontana, CA), who entered into the game as a defensive replacement in the top of the eighth inning, led off the bottom of the ninth with a base knock to gas up the train. Gonzalez later advanced to second base on a perfect sacrifice bunt from sophomore second baseman Diego Guerrero (Maracaibo, Venezuela) and was promptly lifted for pinch runner Kase Warner (Norco, CA).

After freshman right fielder Junior Coleman (San Diego, CA) was intentionally walked and freshman second baseman Jacob Rodriguez (Walnut, CA) followed by drawing a walk, the stage was set for Kanoho. He launched a fastball that was thrown over the heart of the plate to deep right field, scoring Warner for the 6-5 win. 

D. Martinez earned the nod on the bump and tossed three innings and allowed two runs off of one hit. Freshman reliever Michael Coppens (Fullerton, CA) had a strong outing by tossing 1.1 innings and not allowing a hit leading to three strikeouts. Kuck earned his second win of the season.

McKee paced the offense with a two-run homerun, while Coleman and Kanoho each barreled two hits.

The Tigers (19-8, 5-4 OEC) will continue non-conference play on Thursday, March 29^th against L.A. Pierce College at 2 p.m.