With two outs in the bottom of the fifth, Tigers designated hitter Marc DiCarlo stepped up and laced a single up the middle to extend the Tigers lead to 4-2. The big lefty popped up from his slide into second base and delivered the Tigers’ signature chop celebration towards the Tiger dugout as they roared out, “Boom!” echoing throughout Evans Sports Complex.
This began No. 5 Riverside City College’s two-out rally where seven Tigers came to the plate and six runs were put on the board. A lead Riverside would not relinquish as the baseball team took down the No. 10 Golden Wets Rustlers 9-2 to take their second Orange Empire Conference series.
A series that was marred with rain and rescheduling games as it was originally scheduled to be played March 11, 13, and 15. It was turned into a traditional three-game series from March 15-17 with Riverside winning the final two.
“Fortunately, we were able to utilize indoor facilities to get work in,” Tigers head coach Rudy Arguelles said.
Arguelles was grateful for this adversity with a week-long layoff as that is what they will see if they make the postseason.
“We say F— it,” Tigers catcher Ian Nguyen said. “If something is going on it doesn’t matter how we do it we just get it done.”
Clutch hitting and pitching was the key for the Tigers in the series as they now improve to 4-2 in OEC play.
“That’s truly what it’s about, winning the series,” Arguelles said.
Riverside freshman righty Jake Valenzuela – who was named OEC Co-pitcher of the Week last week – got the ball in the finale looking to follow up his complete game shutout performance against Saddleback on March 8.
“There was definitely some added confidence,” Valenzuela said. “My offense and defense played behind me well and that boosted me up to keep me going.”
The local Ramona High product in only his third start of the season remained unphased after giving up runs in the third and fourth innings including a solo home run to Rustlers Landon Runyan. He struck out nine as he bopped his head strutting on and off the field working deep into the game once again going eight innings on 94 pitches.
“He’s so versatile and can handle every role that a staff possesses,” Arguelles said. “The biggest thing with Jake is that he’s a bulldog competitor. He’s convicted with his pitches; he displays body language but it’s not disrespectful. He is an example where guys can look at from a competitive aspect, and that’s what I think his biggest attribute is.”
Valenzuela credits his background of playing football growing up for that bulldog mentality.
He relied heavily on his sweeping slider in all stages of the count to get outs against the Rustlers.
“We worked on that pitch specifically with Dave (Martinez) in the fall,” Valenzuela said. “We made it my go-to pitch.”
The Central Arkansas commit Nguyen led the way for the Tiger’s offense going 3-4 with 3 RBIs. Capping off a strong series for Nguyen where he had a batting average of .571 against the Rustlers.
“In the first game of the series I wasn’t seeing the ball well at all and was swinging through stuff,” Nguyen said. “I simplified what I was doing and made small adjustments to be able to produce.”
Redshirt sophomore third baseman Eddie Alfaro kept up his recent surge reaching base safely on all four plate appearances and notching a double. Alfaro improved his on-base percentage (OBP) to nearly .600 in conference play.
Riverside is poised to make another jump in the California Community Colleges Athletic Association rankings as they head into an OEC bye week.
Santa Barbara City College comes into the Dirty Riv for the Tiger’s next matchup March 20.
“The (series win) gives us a better chance to accomplish our goal right now which is to take conference for the first time,” Nguyen said.
This article is dedicated to Matt Schoenmann
