By Xavier Constantino 

The Riverside City College Tigers lost to the Saddleback Bobcats 5-2 in the first game of the Orange Empire Conference on March 8. 

  Giancarlo Flores, freshman starting pitcher for the Tigers, took the mound and went on to pitch seven innings, facing 28 batters, and gave up only a run.

The teams were held up offensively through four innings with most of the Tigers’ contact leading to an out. The Bobcats were struck out six times and only got on base three times. 

However, it was freshman shortstop Sebastian Flores who got the Tigers the first hit of the day with a single in the top of the fifth-inning.

Freshman center fielder Julian Alvarez came up to the plate with two outs and two men on base. He gave the Tigers their first runs of the game with a hard hit two RBI single down the middle into the outfield grass. The Tigers were up 2-0 after five innings.

A couple innings later, the Bobcats had a two-out rally in the seventh and gained a run back to make it 2-1.

The Bobcats rallied with two outs with the help of a couple back-to-back walks and errors. The Tigers were down 5-2 in the ninth inning.