Tigers Take First Game from Dons

Written by Ayden Mason

No. 13-ranked Riverside City College defeated No. 10-ranked Santa Ana College on the road with a nail-biting 7-6 victory to take the first game of the three-game series.

The Tigers improve to 26-12 overall and 13-6 in the Orange Empire Conference, while the Dons fall to 25-13 on the year, 12-7 in conference.

Santa Ana scored early to take a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first, but RCC responded in the top of the second. Eddie Alfaro (2-for-3) gave RCC the lead with a two-RBI single, 2-1.

The Dons took the lead back in the fourth after scoring three runs to put them up 4-2.

In the fifth inning, Bubba Heidler (1-for-4) made it a one-run game when he hit an RBI groundout, while Luke Medure (1-for-5) followed with an RBI single to tie the game. Medure then stole second and took advantage of an error from the catcher to get to third before coming home on a wild pitch, 5-4.

Santa Ana tied the game once again in the seventh, 5-5, but the Tigers took the lead back in the eighth after another throwing error from the Dons as Ian Nguyen (1-for-2) scored to make it a 6-5 game.

In the top of the ninth, Heidler earned his second RBI of the game when he hit a sacrifice fly to score Eddie Alfaro (2-for-3) from third.

The Dons tried to come back in the bottom of the ninth and cut the deficit to just one run, but left two runners stranded as Sebastian Villegas secured the win for RCC with the final out.

Erik Rodriguez picked up the win with four strikeouts, while Evan Stratton grabbed his fourth save of the year.

Riverside returns home for the second game of the series on Thursday at 2 p.m.