IRVINE, Calif. – Despite mounting a late push, the OC Riptide could not complete the seven-run comeback, as they fell to the San Diego SunRays by a final tally of 10-8.
In the first inning, the Riptide continued their trend of slow starts by giving up six runs to the SunRays, who jumped on OC starter right-hander Coleton Dahl (Santa Barbara City College).
Additionally, the issues of walks and errors persisted for the Riptide, with OC handing out six walks and a costly error to put the SunRays ahead 7-0 after the first two innings.
Momentum took a more positive turn for the Riptide in the third, as perhaps the debut of the team’s new bat dog, Omaha, helped spark a rally for the Riptide.
The Riptide’s new bat dog, “Omaha”, made her debut in the bottom of the third inning (Joey Gray)
After loading the bases via walks, infielder Ace Reese (University of Houston) and designated hitter Rocco Gump (Northwestern State University) came through for the Riptide with a pair of RBI singles to help bring across four runs and cut the lead to three.
OC also added a pair of runs in the sixth to cut the lead to just two runs at 8-6 heading into the seventh.
Yet, in the seventh inning, the Riptide could not escape their issues on the mound, as they hit three SunRay batters and walked an additional hitter to help add two runs to the SunRays’ lead and put them ahead 10-6.
Overall, the Riptide walked 13 SunRays hitters and gave up ten runs in the game, despite San Diego only manufacturing two hits past the second inning.
OC made things interesting in the ninth by scoring two runs off of a pair of walks and singles, but ultimately came short of completing the comeback, as they fell to the SunRays 10-8.
Despite the late effort to get back into the game, Riptide manager Connor Spencer was disappointed in his team’s performance and admitted it was a sloppy night for both sides.
“I’m proud of the guys for continuing to fight, but the fact of the matter is the only reason we came back in this ball game at all was because San Diego was doing much of the same that we were doing [with] a lot of walks and a lot of freebies,” Spencer said. “The offense was poor, the pitching was poor, the defense was poor, all three facets.”
Spencer acknowledged that the squad must do some reflection going forward to get back on the winning side next week.
“That performance was unacceptable,” Spencer said. “That was a bit of a gut check for a lot of these players, and there’s some honest conversations that we all needed to have. But that was an unacceptable product that we just put out on the field.”
The Riptide will have two days off to recover and regroup before taking on the Walnut Creek Crawdads at home on Wednesday at 7 P.M.
