SANTA ANA - Leading 3-2 in the seventh inning, the Dons seemed to be in control of their game with Riverside City College as they had held the Tigers to just one hit up that point. But all of that changed on a routine fly ball to center field with two outs and the bases loaded.
As the ball fell between two Dons (20-12, 7-11) outfielders, Riverside (22-11, 11-7) took a 4-3 lead and never looked back as they went on to win 8-6.
The Tigers would add a grand slam, hit by Ricardo Rodriguez, in the eighth inning after their three-run seventh to take a commanding 8-3 lead over the Dons. The grand slam in the eighth came on Riverside's first hit of the inning after the Dons loaded the bases with three walks.
The Dons rallied for three runs in the ninth inning but were unable to sustain the rally, falling 8-6 to the Tigers. After Joshua Vargas plated the first run on a RBI-ground out, Blake Walker scored when JB Bryant reached on an error. Tyler Madrid followed later in the inning with a two-out, RBI-double that scored Bryant to make the score 8-6. But a ground out back to the mound ended the Dons rally.
Prior to the Tigers comeback, the Dons had built a 3-0 lead in the fifth inning after the first four innings were dominated by pitching. Julio Garcia started the fifth with a lead-off single before beating the throw on Derek Meddings' sacrifice bunt.
Blake Walker followed with a sacrifice bunt of his own, but a Tigers error allowed Walker to reach third after Garcia and Meddings scored on the play. Walker came around to score in the next at bat on Vargas' RBI-single to right field.
Riverside would cut the lead to 3-1 in the sixth when K.C. Hutch scored on a RBI-ground out by Daniel Arrellano.
The Tigers rally in the seventh inning was started with back-to-back walks with one out before a hit batter loaded the bases. The next batter was walked to force in a run and make the score 3-2 in favor of the Dons.
The Dons then got a strikeout for the second out before Travis Hawley got Kenny Mathews to hit a fly ball to centerfield. That's when the ball dropped, allowing two more runs to score. David Schuknecht attempted to score on the play but was thrown out at home, limiting the inning to just three runs.
Matt Blanchard didn't factor into the decision for the Dons after holding Riverside to just one run on one hit in 5.1 innings of work. His counterpart, Blake Burrell, also didn't factor into the decision as he allowed three runs on four hits in five innings.
Riverside's Joseph Sullivan (3-1) picked up the win in relief as he held the Dons scoreless over three innings. Cortland Cox got his first save of the season as he recorded the final out of the game.
Ryan Chapman (2-2) took the loss as he hit Rodriguez who eventually scored the go-ahead run.
The two teams will wrap up the season series on Saturday at Riverside City College at 12:00 p.m.
