While losing an Orange Empire Conference series is rare enough for the Dons, a season sweep would have been a much more rare sight. Two days after dropping the series to Riverside, the first time SAC has lost a series in over two seasons, the Dons (16-6, 5-4) avoided their first season sweep since 2004 with a 13-5 win over the Tigers (11-11, 6-3).
The win, coupled with losses by Cypress College and Golden West College, gave the Dons sole possession of third place in the OEC behind Riverside and first-place Orange Coast College.
While the Dons avoided the sweep, it didn't come easy as the Tigers scored at least one run in each of the first four innings. However, the Dons had an answer almost every inning as Riverside was only able to hold its lead for half an inning at a time.
After the Tigers scored the first run of the game in the top of the first, Tyler Madrid doubled in Andy Peterson before scoring on Dylan Jones' RBI-single that gave the Dons their first lead of the series at 2-1.
Riverside came back to tie the game at 2-2 in the second before taking a 3-2 lead in the top of the third. That lead didn't last long as the Dons scored three times in the bottom of the third to take a 5-3 lead.
Kyle Kuck plated the first two runs of the inning with a two-run double that scored Peterson and Madrid before Adrian Garcia's sacrifice fly scored Kuck for the final run of the frame.
The Tigers came back once again with two runs in the top of the fourth inning to tie the game at 5-5. Nick Bruno doubled in Ricardo Rodriguez before Jake Middleton scored on an error.
Again, the Dons had an answer with four runs in the bottom of the fourth inning as they took the lead for good. Trevor Magno led the frame off with a walk before JB Bryant moved him to second with a sacrifice bunt.
Peterson and Madrid then drew back-to-back walks to load the bases before Jones hit a two-run double that scored Magno and Peterson. Konnor Armijo followed later in the inning with a two-run single to put the Dons up 9-5.
The Dons had one more four-run inning in them before it was all said and done, this time in the seventh inning. Riverside got the leadoff batter out before Bryant was hit by a pitch.
After the second out was recorded, the Dons strung together five straight hits to ignite the two-out rally. Madrid got the rally started with a single before Jones singled to load the bases.
That set up Kuck who cleared the bases with a double to right-centerfield, giving him five RBI on the day. Armijo then singled to right field, scoring Kuck to cap the scoring for the game.
Travis Hawley (1-0) picked up his first win of the season in relief for the Dons. Hawley held the Tigers scoreless while allowing just one hit over 2.1 innings pitched in relief of Bryan Clough.
Michael Davis (0-1) suffered the loss for Riverside after allowing two runs on just one hit in one inning of relief.
