Irvine, Calif.— After an exhilarating four hour game, the Orange County Riptide dropped the weekend opener to the Condo Oaks 15-11 in what was a back and forth game.
“All the tides turned against us tonight because all of the momentum was on our side in the beginning of the game,” assistant coach Zach Thomas said. “Towards the end of the game, all the momentum was on their side and we just couldn’t come back from that.”
Towards the beginning of the game, Conejo Oaks were setting the tone offensively making the Riptide continuously respond back to keep themselves in striking distance.
Conejo Oaks put up three runs in the top of the 3rd inning to make it 4-1, but the Riptide answered back with two runs to keep the game close at 4-3.
The Riptide’s offense broke through next inning when they put up five runs to take a 8-4 lead.
The rally started when Ayden Garcia (Golden West) hit a ground ball that the Conejo Oaks defense couldn’t field cleanly. The error proved costly as Grant MacArthur (San Joaquin Delta College) and Patrick Hackworth (UC San Diego) scored.
(Photo credit: Sarah Cisneros)
Reese Chapman (Tennessee) capitalized on that error by driving in Garcia and Connor McGuire (Cal Baptist) on a double that one-hopped the center field fence. During the next at-bat, Nolan Funke (New Mexico State) drove in Chapman on a sacrifice fly.
The Riptide had a 9-4 lead heading into the 6th inning when Conejo Oaks poured on five runs in the form of a single and two doubles to tie the game. The Riptide retook the lead in the bottom half of the inning off a Nathan Cadena (San Jose State) single and MacArthur sacrifice fly to make it 11-9.
Conejo Oaks didn’t let the Riptide’s answer stop their momentum as they took a 12-11 lead in the top of the 8th off a bases loaded single that drove in two. Conejo Oaks would seal the game in the 9th by adding on three more runs and putting the game out of reach.
The Riptide will travel to Thousand Oaks Saturday at 4 p.m. as they’ll try to break a three game skid to even up the weekend series against Conejo Oaks.
Conejo Oaks vs Orange County Riptide – Box Score