Irvine, Calif. — The Orange County Riptide (14-13-1, 10-12 CCL) found themselves singing the blues at home in the Orange County Great Park Wednesday night thanks to the San Luis Obispo Blues (14-19, 8-13 CCL).
A day after beating the Blues 2-1, the Riptide fell to the Blues 14-6, which ties for their worst loss by differential on the season.
Despite the game as a whole being disappointing for the Riptide, the opening frame couldn’t have went better for the Orange County-based team.
Starting pitcher Evan Vasiliou (UC Irvine) struck out the side in the opening half of the first. The Anteater would go on to strike out five more Foresters in his outing, tallying a season-high of eight strikeouts for the southpaw.
The Riptide’s offense compounded their starting pitcher’s efficient start.
Nathan Smith (Tennessee) got the scoring started with a RBI double, followed by Bubba Filia (UC San Diego) driving in two on a single to put the score at 3-0.
Nathan Smith reaches second base after hitting a RBI double in the Riptide’s 14-5 loss. (Christian Perez).
After the immaculate start, everything slowly went downhill for the Riptide.
The valley came in sixth and the seventh innings as a total of ten runs crossed for the Blues. The majority of the damage came thanks to the hosts as a mix of walks and hitting batters from the Riptide’s bullpen gifted the visitors with six free baserunners in the two innings.
Gavin Mez (UNLV) would provide a consolatory highlight for the Riptide as he sent a solo shot over the right field fence for his second home run of the season.
Gavin Mez (@Gavin1mez @unlvbaseball) with a solo shot in the 8th‼️#OCRiptidefamily #OCRiptideBaseball #CCLBaseball #SummerBall #BEaREBEL pic.twitter.com/itO9jclmX3
— OC Riptide Baseball (@ocriptide) July 14, 2022
The Riptide’s next opportunity to bounce back from the loss comes on Friday as they hit the road to take on the Santa Barbara Foresters at 6:00 p.m Pacific time. Box Score
