Dons Allow Late Rally in 8-5 Loss to Riverside

Kasey Hutton went 2-for-4 with one RBI and two runs scored against Riverside City College.
Kasey Hutton went 2-for-4 with one RBI and two runs scored against Riverside City College.

SANTA ANA - The Dons were unable to complete the sweep against Riverside City College as they lost to the Tigers 8-5 in an Orange Empire Conference game. The loss drops the Dons to 15-19 on the season and 8-10 in conference while Riverside improves to 14-19 on the season and 6-11 in conference.

The first inning had both teams scoring with the Tigers getting a RBI-single to take a 1-0 lead before the Dons answered with two runs of their own. Hattie Marshall singled in Tina Ramos before Kasey Hutton scored on a wild pitch.

But the Tigers would come back with three runs in the second inning on a triple, an infield single, and a double to reclaim the lead at 4-2. The Dons would get one run back in the third inning when Marshall drew a leadoff walk, went to third on a Christina McCullogh single and then scored on a sacrifice fly by Mercedes Munoz  to make the score 4-3.

Then, in the fourth inning, the Dons went back on top by a score of 5-4 with two unearned runs. Desiree Hernandez started the rally by reaching second on an error with one out before scoring on a RBI-double by Hutton, who eventually came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Marshall.

However, the Tigers put up two runs in the fifth inning and two more runs in the sixth inning to take an 8-5 lead while retiring the final nine SAC batters in order to hand the Dons the loss.

Marshall (6-8) took the loss as she allowed all eight runs on 11 hits over 5.2 innings while Riverside's Laura Mendez (8-12) got the win as she held the Dons to five runs, three earned, on five hits over seven innings.