Irvine, Calif.— The Orange County Riptide suffered a 8-4 loss to the Arroyo Seco Saints in their final home game of the regular season after showing late signs of life during the last two innings.
In the bottom of the 1st inning, the Riptide had a golden chance to set the tone early. They had the bases loaded but weren’t able to drive in a run.
In a make or break game for the Saints, the bats showed up early as they put up four hits and efficiently drove in four runs in the top of the 2nd inning.
“Their bats came out very hot and because of them scoring big early, the energy was kind of sucked out of the room,” assistant coach Zach Thomas said. “We did well fighting back but it’s just an energy thing that we’ll come out and conquer next game.”
The Saints struck again with a RBI single in the 4th and then scored one run in three consecutive innings from the 6th to the 8th inning to make it a 8-0 ballgame.
The bottom third of the Saints lineup provided the spark for the rest of their lineup by combining for nine of the team’s 15 hits and six of their eight runs.
(Photo credit: Alyssa Gervacio)
Nathan Cadena (San Jose State) recorded his second double of the day and drove in Isaiah Morales (Utah Valley) in the process to give the Riptide their first run in the bottom of the 8th. Grady Morgan (Fresno State) scored Cadena to make it 8-2.
The Riptide weren’t done scoring late as they put on pressure in the 9th. With bases loaded and zero outs, Morales smacked one the opposite way to drive in a run. Cadena would bring in Nick Upstill (Pepperdine) on a groundout during the next at-bat, but that’s all the Riptide could do as the Saints closed it out.
With the loss, the Saints have now tied the Riptide for 2nd place in the CCL South with a 18-14 record. The Riptide will now travel to face the San Luis Obispo Blues and the Saints take on the Academy Barons this weekend. Both teams will try to look and clinch home field advantage for the playoffs during their last regular season series.
Orange County Riptide vs. Arroyo Seco Saints – Box Score