Riverside Defeats Chaffey with Ease in Return to Home Diamond

It had been nearly two years since the diamond at Riverside City College was prepped for game. On Wednesday, February 3, 2022, Tiger baseball was back in action against the Chaffey College Panthers on home turf.

In a much anticipated return, the Tigers did not disappoint. It started on the mound with freshman starter Giancarlo Flores absolutely shoving.

Flores was lights out from the moment he graced the rubber by tossing seven scoreless innings and recording a career-high 10 punch outs. He began his outing by fanning the first two batters and allowed just a mere base hit through the first four innings. The first hit was a two-out bunt single to third base. 

He recorded a strikeout in every inning including two or more strikeouts in four of his seven innings of work. When he did have runners on, it was with two outs or forced a double play to wipe the bases clean.

Offensively, Riverside recorded eight hits and drew a season-high eight walks.

Their first run came on a bases loaded walk drawn by freshman left fielder Brian West in the top of the second inning. That fueled a five-run inning as freshman first baseman Ramsses Fierro followed by wearing a pitch in the back to plate freshman designated hitter Bret Bowers. West came into score on a two-out walk drawn by freshman center fielder Julian Alvarez. Freshman catcher Maxwell Shor capped the inning with a two-RBI bloop single down the right field line, plating freshman second baseman Beau Betten and Fierro leading to a 5-0 advantage.

Riverside struck again in the bottom of the fourth inning after a leadoff triple from Betten. He came around to score on a ground out to the third baseman off the bat of Shor. The Tigers etched two more two innings later as Shor swiped second base after reaching base via walk, allowing J. Alvarez to slide safely into home plate on the throw. Bowers followed with a two bagger down the left field line, plating Shor, to snag a 8-0 lead.

Riverside scored three more runs in the eighth inning highlighted by a single through the left side by freshman first baseman Adrian Arechiga, who replace Fierro at first base in the top of the seventh inning.

Freshman reliever Jordan Townley entered in the top of the eighth inning and tossed two scoreless frames leading to an 11-0 win.

Flores (2-0) fanned 10 batters and did not issue a single walk in seven frames.

Bowers went 2-for-4 with a double, RBI, and a run scored. Shor tallied three RBI on a 1-for-3 night and Betten barreled his first-career triple.