No. 3 Baseball Bested by No. 22 Grossmont in Opening Contest

The Riverside City College baseball team earned the third seed in the 3C2A Southern Regional Championships and hosted the No. 22 Grossmont College Griffins at Evans Sports Complex on Friday afternoon. After gaining an early 1-0 lead, is was all downhill for the Tigers as they fell to the Griffins 14-3.

Sophomore center fielder Casey Murray Jr. provided the first run of the game for the Tigers by blasting a solo shot to dead center in the bottom of the first inning. From then on, the Griffins went on to score 12 unanswered runs over the course of the following five innings.

Riverside clocked in nine hits, but gained no momentum from it. They scored two more runs throughout the contest coming in the final three innings of the game.

Sophomore designated hitter Jordan Ruiz was the lone starter to play the duration of the contest and went 2-for-4. Sophomore Nathan Aldaz entered in the top of the sixth inning as a defensive replacement and finished the day going 2-for-3. Sophomore Dominic Dominguez had the lone extra base hit that acted as an RBI double in the seventh inning.

The pitching performance was subpar with sophomore starter Hayden Coon lasting only 1.2 inning while allowing four runs on three hits. He was tabbed with the loss. All relievers, who failed to pitch more than three innings, gave up at least one run. Sophomore Caleb Anderson pitched the final three innings and led the staff with three strikeouts.

Riverside (28-12) will face a win or go home scenario tomorrow as they host the Griffins (21-17) at 11 a.m. Game three will follow 30 minutes after game two, if necessary.