Riverside scored two runs in four different innings on Wednesday night and went on to beat visiting SBCC 8-4 in a nonconference baseball game at the Evans Sports Complex.
The Vaqueros (12-16) jumped ahead 1-0 in the first when Eli Michaels hit a leadoff triple and scored on a groundout by Joey Epperson. Riverside, ranked No. 9 in Southern Cal, improved to 14-13.
SBCC beat Riverside 2-1 last year in a best-of-3 Regional playoff series in Santa Barbara.
Left-hander Rich McCaffrey went the first 5 1/3 innings for the Vaqueros, giving up six runs (four earned) on nine hits. He struck out seven and walked one.
“McCaffrey pitched as well as anyone I’ve seen this year for the first four innings,” said coach Jeff Walker. “For the first time in a few games, we made some errors that hurt us.”
Epperson and Zach Zehner both went 2-4 for the Vaqueros. Riverside catcher Brad Burcroff was 4-4 and scored four runs. Starting pitcher Blake Burrell improved to 5-0 by holding SBCC to two runs on four hits in the first six innings.
The Vaqueros will take the next seven days off before resuming WSC North play at Ventura on April 12 at 2:30 p.m.
LINE SCORE:
SBCC ………… 100 001 101 — 4 7 3
Riverside ……. 002 202 02x — 8 12 1
McCaffrey, Benenati (6) and Dinges; Burrell, Molina (7) and Burcroff. W–Burrell 5-0. L–McCaffrey 3-3. Save–Molina 3.
2B–SB: Zehner, Laubhan. R: Gotta. 3B–SB: Michaels.
