Irvine, Calif – The Orange Country Riptide dropped back-to-back games for the first time this season, losing to the Malibu Marlins 5-4 at Great Park Thursday night.
“We’ve been preaching fundamental baseball and productive outs, and we had a couple of those today,” Riptide head coach Bryan Evans said. “But I think we could’ve done a better job at production today.”
The Marlins captured an early lead with an RBI single from left fielder Josh Brown, instantly putting the Riptide in an early hole.
Shortstop Isaac Liberman smashed an RBI double to extend the Malibu lead in the second inning, scoring Lucas Thorpe.
“Just take away things that I can learn,” starting pitcher Erik Rodriguez said. “Just take the good from it, and learn from the bad, and move onto the next one.”
The Riptide cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the second inning, as a Brad Beaudreau RBI single brought in Tomas Cernius for the first Riptide run.
Building off the momentum from the previous inning, Nathaniel Pone stole second and advanced to third on an errant throw, eventually scoring to tie the game via a Shawn Romero two-out single to left.
Orange County took its first and only lead when shortstop Slater Nunez hit a sacrifice fly, allowing Cernius to score in the bottom of the fourth.
A sacrifice fly by first baseman Josh Rock brought Tyler Covington home, tying the game for the Marlins in the top of the seventh.
The Marlins retook the lead in the top of the eighth by taking advantage of back-to-back wild pitches from Riptide southpaw Austin Kirkwood.
The Riptide rallied in the eighth, drawing three consecutive walks before pinch-runner Landry Stamps closed the gap with a walk home, bringing the score to 5-4. However, the Riptide failed to capitalize further.
Orange County left a few runners on in the ninth but came up empty once again.
The Riptide are now 9-4 on the season, remaining in second place in the south behind the Santa Barbara Foresters.
Up next, the Riptide will face the Conejo Oaks Friday night at Great Park.
First pitch is set for 7 p.m.
