Huntington Beach, Calif. – The No. 3 Golden West College Rustlers (26-14) took advantage of No. 18 Riverside City College's (24-17) wild pitch and passed ball to score the winning run in the bottom of the 12thinning to take game one, 7-6.
Riverside's Ryan Mota (2 for 5, 2 HR, 4 RBI) got the scoring started in the first inning with a 2-run blast to left field to give the Tigers a 2-0 early lead. But the Rustlers would answer back in the bottom of the frame with a 2 out rally that started with Dillon Persinger (1 for 6, 1 RBi, 2 runs scored) reaching first base on a strike out passed ball error by the Tigers catcher, a Cody Marshall (1 for 4, 2 runs scored) walk, that all culminated with a Michael Fuchs (1 for 4, 1 RBI) RBI base hit through the middle of the Tiger defense to score Persinger from second to cut the lead 2-1.
The scoring started again for the Tigers when Casey Sheehan ( 2 for 5, 1 HR, 2 RBI) hit a 2-run homerun to left centerfield to extend the Tigers lead to 4-1. Again our Rustlers didn't go quietly in the bottom half of the frame as they scored 4 runs on 5 hits to take the lead 5-4. Persinger doubled home Chris Gilbody(1 for 6, 1 run scored), Daniel Maguire (1 for 5, 2 RBI, 1 run scored) would double home Persinger and Marshall, and John Shattles(2 for 5, 2 RBI, 1 run scored) would single home Maguire to cap off the 4-run inning.
The game stayed quiet till Riverside's Mota struck again with another 2-run blast to left to reclaim the lead 6-5 in the top of the 7th inning. The Rustlers would respond in the bottom of the 8th inning when Shattles crushed a fastball over the centerfield fence for a solo homerun to tie the game at 6-6.
Riverside had a chance to take the lead with multiple runs scoring, but Fuchs made an unbelievable diving catch at third base with bases loaded and crawled to tag third base to enforce a double play that would end the top of the 12th inning for the Tigers. The Rustlers took advantage of two costly errors made by the Tigers defense to score the winning run on a passed ball by the catcher.
NEXT: Game 2 of the best of 3 Super Regional continues Saturday May 14th with first pitch scheduled for 12pm.
