By Jeremy Fuerte / Staff Writer
Strong arm (Allison Perez / Photo Editor)
By Jeremy Fuerte / Staff Writer
Despite their strong performance in the first round of the playoffs, RCC baseball’s season came to an end after El Camino College handed them their second straight loss.
“The bottom line is we didn’t execute,” Rudy Arguelles, associate coach said. “We got outplayed. We lost our games and had our opportunity and now we’re home.”
After three innings, the Tigers fell behind 5-0 after allowing five unearned runs based on errors.
The Tigers cut into the lead with two runs in the fifth after left fielder Jackson Jones scored off of a wild pitch and a sacrifice hit allowed third basemen Ricardo Rodriguez to race for home plate making the score 5-2.
The Tigers attempted to mount a comeback in the top of the eighth.
The bases were loaded after a batter hit a fielding error by ECC, a double play pushed across two runs to make the score 6-4.
In all, the Tigers loaded the bases three times throughout the game but were unable to capitalize off of their 11 combined hits in order to make a comeback and lost 6-4.
“Key mistakes on the defense allowed their offense to get in,” Andy Rojo, associate head coach said. “We left a number of our runners on base and for the offense, you end up scraping for runs and we didn’t even scrap.”
The one bright spot of the Super Regional was the Tigers’ ability to stay in the game due to their pitching.
“Our pitchers played well enough to allow us to stay in the game while our defense and offense failed to make plays,” Rojo said.
After the Tigers won two of their three games in the first round of the playoffs, the team was hopeful that they could advance further into the playoffs, but failed.
“We were hoping the team would take on a little bit of a different personality,” Rojo said. “We fooled ourselves during the first week of the playoffs and we ended up going back to who we were. Our old demons came back again.”
The coaches talk about what are some basic things to they need adjust before heading into next season.
“First off we need to get back to the right type of player,” he said. “We prided ourselves on having the best talented group of players, but we need to get tougher mentally and get the kinds of players that put the team before themselves. Our team got away from that.”
The Tigers hope their team’s turnaround will be swift next season based on the program they have built.
“We’re a two-year institution,” Arguelles said. “We’re used to this format. That’s why we created our environment the way it is created; in order to excel our progress and development in those two years at a rate of speed that is accelerated beyond the four years. We don’t have the luxury of waiting.”
The team never played good, consistent baseball throughout the entire season and that is something the Tigers hope to fix next season.
“We never clicked completely as a team,” Rojo said. “Now we’re back home and getting ready for another year.”
