Photo by Sammi Wellman
Photo by Sammi Wellman

RCC Secures Series Victory Over OCC

No. 3-ranked Riverside City College grabbed a 7-3 victory over Orange Coast College Thursday, securing the series victory with one game left to play.

The Tigers improve to 18-8 on the year and 4-4 in Orange Empire Conference action. The Pirates slip to 10-15 overall, 5-3 in conference.

Eight Tigers had hits in the game, led by Dylan Nelson's 3-for-4 performance at the plate. He scored a run and batted in another to help the Tigers grab the win. Eddie Alfaro (2-for-4, two runs) and Parker Sobiesiak (2-for-3, one run, one RBI) also had multiple hits, while Gage Gonzales, Ian Nguyen, Logan Ortega, Carter Wood and Sebastian Villegas also got on board the hitting train.

Ryan Jenkins picked up his third win of the year with three strikeouts, while Julian Cazares grabbed his second save with one strikeout.

Riverside set the tone early with two runs in the bottom of the first after Nelson knocked an RBI double before coming home on a Sobiesiak single.

The Pirates tried to keep things close and pulled within one in the top of the fifth, 3-2, but Nguyen came up big in the bottom half of the inning, driving in two runs with a gapper to left center.

Riverside kept rolling and upped its lead to 7-2 in the sixth as Wood doubled to left center to score one and Gonzales knocked a base hit up the middle with two outs to give Wood the green light to come home.

OCC managed to score one run in the eighth, but it was all RCC would allow.

The Tigers look to complete the sweep on the road, heading back to the Pirates' diamond on Friday for a 1 p.m. contest.