San Diego Mesa College baseball team took on the Road Runners of Rio Hondo on Feb. 12, falling to the top ranked team in the state by the final score of 16-4. The win pushes Rio Hondo to 4-1 while the Olympians fall to 2-2.
Starting pitcher Sean Coughlin, who took the loss for Mesa, struggled walking 3, hitting another 3 batters and throwing a wild pitch totaling five runs in less than an inning. He wasn’t the only one who had trouble tossing strikes for the Olympians today. It seemed no matter who was on the mound for them the results were about the same.
Head Coach Kevin Hazlett said after the game, “It’s the 12 walks or hit batters that we let on base for free today that gave them a chance to knock in runs.”
The Road Runners only tallied one more hit than Mesa did but the free passes were vastly in favor of Rio Hondo and eventually led to the win. Being down early also hurt the Olympians.
Hazlett has a certain offensive philosophy he employs on his team. “We’re not the type of team that’s just going to stand up at the plate and bang it out with a team. We have to run an offense, we have to hit and run, we have to bunt and you know when you get down 12 to nothing, it kind of takes that aspect away from you completely.”
The Olympians would make it a battle in the bottom of the second inning by scoring 3 runs on 4 hits including two doubles. The first double was hit by first baseman Robert Phiakeo who drove in Tyler Timmer. Patrick de la Garza drove in Josh Suffridge with the second double of the inning. Suffridge had singled earlier in the inning driving in Phiakeo.
The momentum quickly swung back in Rio Hondo’s favor as they scored 4 more in the top of the third. They put another run up in the fifth inning, and the Olympians answered back with a run of their own in the seventh. Rio Hondo put the finishing touches on in the eighth extending the game beyond reach with four more runs to finish the scoring for the afternoon.
Each team went deep into their bullpen with Mesa using six pitchers and the Road Runners using 5. Though, with the exception of Rio Hondo’s starting pitcher, no one threw more than 2.2 innings. Mesa gets another crack at Rio Hondo tomorrow morning as they travel up to Whittier for a quick rematch. Mesa is back in action at home Feb 21 and 22 against Skyline College.