IRVINE, Calif. – On what was described as a “weird” game by Riptide manager Connor Spencer, OC’s five-game winning streak came to an end on Tuesday night with the team falling to the Conejo Oaks at home by a final score of 10-8.
The wacky evening for the Riptide started in the first, as a missed diving catch in centerfield allowed Oaks designated hitter Justin Rubin to touch all four bases with an inside-the-park home run.
Despite this unusual play in the first inning, Riptide starting pitcher, right-hander Luis Becerra (Cal Baptist University), put in a solid start for the squad. In five innings, he managed to limit the Oaks to just two runs on three hits, while fanning five Oaks hitters in the process.
With the Oaks tacking on another run in the fifth, the Riptide bats were due to respond in a big way and get on the board after trailing 2-0 through four and a half innings.
In the bottom of the inning, the cold spell was broken by infielder Patrick Hackworth (University of California San Diego) who brought home outfielder Jackson Kemmerer (University of Nevada) to cut the Oaks lead to one.
In the very next inning, designated hitter J.C. Allen broke through his slump with an RBI single to tie the game at two runs a piece.
Jack Hammond continued his strong start for the Riptide by blasting a two-run homerun in the seventh inning. (Photo courtesy Dingers Photography)
The lineup kept the train moving in the seventh, as a leadoff triple from Kemmerer and an RBI single from Hackworth gave the Riptide a 3-2 lead.
Yet, the at-bat of the night for the Riptide came two hitters later with infielder Jack Hammond (Long Beach State University) stepping in with a runner on first and a chance to add to the lead. In just two games with OC Hammond has already made his mark, and continued his hot start by blasting a two-run home run over the left field fence to give the Riptide a 5-2 lead.
“I was just sitting on the pitch that I wanted and I got it out of here,” Hammond said.
With a three-run lead heading into the eighth, it seemed the Riptide were in the driver’s seat to close out Conejo and extend the winning streak to five.
However, a mixture of shaky pitching from usually reliable arms in the OC bullpen, and timely hitting from the Conejo lineup allowed the Oaks to battle back and tie the game at 5-5 at the end of the eighth.
With the game in the balance in the ninth, the Oaks came out firing on all cylinders, as they managed to hit through their order and bring across five runs to grab a 10-5 lead.
To cap off the night’s theme of strangeness, Riptide infielder Nathan Cadena came in the game with two outs to get the last out for OC to preserve bullpen arms. Shockingly, Cadena struck out the first hitter he faced to get the Riptide out of the ninth.
The inning rounded out a sloppy end to the game for the Riptide pitching staff and defense that surrendered eight runs, eight walks, two wild pitches and an error all in the last two frames of the night.
“Towards the end there we bring in [Tanner] Waraday and [Ryan] Kittredge and both have been very good for us this summer, so I do not expect that to be a theme at all with those guys,” Spencer said. “Sometimes you just have to take a step back, take off your cap and say well that’s baseball. We give up eight in the last two innings, that’s not normal and nor do I expect that to be normal.”
The team battled back in the bottom of the inning with Michael Diaz (Grand Canyon University), Hackworth and Hammond all coming in to score, but ultimately left the tying run on second base, losing to the Oaks 10-8.
Although the Riptide came up short, Spencer was proud of his team’s ability to battle back after going down big in the ninth.
“If you would have told me this is how this one was going to end even in the eighth inning I wouldn’t have believed you,” Spencer said. “We battled, we fought hard… we’re going to be just fine and we’ll get back to a new winning streak tomorrow.”
The Riptide will look to turn the page after the end of their winning streak, as they have a chance to get back on track against the struggling San Diego SunRays at home tomorrow at 7 p.m.
