Since the establishment of the Orange Empire Conference in the 1986-87 academic year, the Riverside City College baseball program has made the postseason in 28 of the 36 seasons, gone to the state finals eight times and won it all five times. Solidifying themselves as one of the premier programs in the OEC and the entire state of California. The Tigers have seemingly accomplished all there is to achieve from a team standpoint in the OEC … except win the conference championship. 

As we enter the final 12 games of OEC play, RCC sits in third place with an 8-4 record, 21-10 overall, three games back from the first-place Santa Ana College Dons. They are two games back from Cypress College, who handed Riverside their only conference series defeat thus far. A series that included a blown 9th inning lead for the Tigers in Game 3 led to a walk-off loss for Riverside. 

The Tigers’ next two series feature favorable matchups if you could consider any matchup favorable in the always loaded OEC. They take on Orange Coast College this week and Irvine Valley College next week who both currently sit at the bottom of the standings. The latter of which has yet to win a conference game. Two out of the three games in both series will be in the Dirty Riv at Evans Sports Complex. 

Riverside potentially controls its destiny if they also get some help from the clubs playing Cypress to set up a winner-takes-all final conference series against Santa Ana at the end of April. 

The Tigers have as much talent as anyone in the OEC, but they will need it all to come to fruition if they want to be the club to win the first OEC championship in program history. 

Picks to click

The rotation: 

Riverside’s starting rotation has been solid all season long and has carried that success throughout OEC play. The rotation, headlined by freshmen Jorge Rodriguez and Jake Valenzuela, has been joined by the emergence of sophomore Erik Rodriguez in recent weeks to round out the three-man stable. In the bullpen, the Tigers’ four high-leverage relievers feature sophomores Evan Stratton and Jake Khasaempanth and freshmen Andrew Martin and Julian Herrera. Stratton has been solid since his move to the bullpen, providing some length for the Tigers with eight innings pitched and eight strikeouts while allowing two runs in his last two appearances. Herrera continues to ramp up as he returns from injury, tossing 3.2 innings of scoreless baseball in conference play. A pitching staff that Tigers head coach Rudy Arguelles said may be the best in school history at the start of the season will need to rise to that expectation if RCC is going to make a run down the stretch. 

Danny Inzunza: 

The freshman out of Kaiser High has solidified himself as Riverside’s everyday first baseman after that position was a revolving door for

the Tigers before conference play. Inzunza has played in 11 out of the 12 conference matchups and sports a .318 batting average with a home run and nine RBIs. In a lineup that is top-heavy with producers such as Ian Nguyen, Mark DiCarlo and Bubba Heidler, Inzunza can help deepen the Riverside lineup if he continues his trends. 

Eddie Alfaro: 

The veteran third baseman hasn’t played the past nine games due to a hamstring injury. Six of which have been OEC games. The redshirt sophomore’s presence has been missed offensively and defensively for the Tigers. Alfaro has a near .600 on-base percentage (OBP) and a perfect fielding percentage in his six conference games. Alfaro also brings leadership to a young Tiger infield and can also slide over to shortstop if Riverside decides to move Bubba Heidler, who has struggled with the glove, totaling 14 errors on the season. Alfaro worked out April 4, 5 and 7 and is expected back any day, according to Arguelles. 

What’s next?

Riverside hosts OCC in the series opener April 8 at Evans Sports Complex.