RIVERSIDE — The Riverside City College baseball team is without five everyday players due to injury and, in the words of manager Dennis Rogers, "still hasn't put it all together yet."
Despite all of that, the Tigers are atop the Orange Empire Conference standings.
Anthony Ayala assured RCC of that much on Tuesday afternoon, hitting a walkoff RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Tigers a 5-4 win over Irvine Valley College at Evans Park.
"I've been wanting an opportunity for a long time," said Ayala, a freshman infielder from Fontana High. "It came and I took it."
The win puts the Tigers (10-9, 4-2) in a three-way tie for first place in the OEC. It was also their fourth win in five games, a bounceback stretch following three straight losses.
"Hopefully we're going to be a grind type of team," Rogers said. "We just stay in every ballgame...and we can come back if we just stay pitch by pitch. If we can improve mentally, I think we have a chance."
The victory wasn't smooth by any stretch, just like RCC's season. The Tigers committed four errors and left eight runners in scoring position.
Starter Tyler Rowe and relievers Tyler Leslie and Austin Sodders kept RCC in it in spite of the miscues, combining to hold the Lasers (6-12, 2-4) to just four hits.
Sodders, a freshman lefthander from Moreno Valley Canyon Springs, pitched a perfect 10th inning for his first career win.
"It's good to get a win out of this game," Sodders said. "It seems like we find more mental focus in the later innings. We just need to have that mentality throughout the whole entire game."
Nick King went 3-5 with three runs scored and a stolen base, Garrett Dean went 4-5 with a double, a run and an RBI and Steven Camberos drove in a pair to lead the Tigers offense.
It was Ayala who came up with the biggest hit, bouncing a high chopper over the leaping second baseman to send home Nick Monte, who reached on an error to lead off the inning, with the winning run.
"I've been trying to find my swing and with a man on third and one out I just tried to put the ball in play," Ayala said. "When I saw the ball get over the second baseman's head I was pretty happy."
Photo by PE Photographer, Stan Lim
http://www.pe.com/sports/college/rcc/rcc-headlines/20140311-baseball-rcc-wins-in-walkoff-fashion.ece
