It was the top of the fourth inning in the Hornets’ matchup against Riverside at Hornet Baseball Field on Tuesday, and the Tigers were leading 2-0. There were two outs with shortstop Bubba Heidler at the plate. Heidler hit a ground ball over to shortstop Diego Vazquez. It looked like a three-up and three-down inning.
Instead, Vazquez’s throw airmailed, pulling first baseman Hunter Billingsley off the bag. Billingsley tried to tag out Heidler running down the first base line unsuccessfully. Riverside was able to capitalize on the miscue, as first baseman Noah Haros smashed a two-run homer on a 1-1 change-up off Hornets starting pitcher Will Valenzuela into left field. The Tigers clawed their way to a 12-4 win over Fullerton.
The Tigers’ dugout was up on the padding as they rooted on their teammates, while the Hornets were trying to limit the damage. Riverside’s rally continued, with two runners on and center fielder Gavin Egan at the plate.
On a 2-1 count, Egan torched a fastball on the inner part of the plate from Valenzuela over the left field wall for a three-run homer. The Hornet players and dugout could only watch as Egan trotted around the bases. That made it 7-0 Riverside.
“If we make the third out on the ground ball to shortstop, it’s two to nothing ballgame, [Haros and Egan] never come up, and when you play shortstop, you can’t make errors, unfortunately, our shortstop made an error,” said Head Coach Chad Baum.
Fullerton came off an impressive road win over Golden West on Saturday. Riverside had won five of its last six games, which included a series win over Cypress. Both teams look to build some momentum heading into the postseason next week.
In the seventh inning, Riverside put the game away for good. Leading 7-1, two runners were on with one out, and third baseman Grant Gray stepped up to the plate. Gray ripped an outside fastball off reliever Landen Pulsifer down the right field line, as it rolled all the way to the wall for a two-run RBI triple.
Baum went to the bullpen and brought in relief pitcher Benjamin Dominguez. The first batter Dominguez faced, he gave up an RBI double to left fielder Luke Medure. The Tigers added two more runs in the inning to make it 12-1. Baum emptied the bench as he took out his starters.
The Hornets started a rally of their own in the eighth inning. Riverside relief pitcher Brady Pavlovsky had the bases loaded with one out. Hornets shortstop James Reveles stepped up to the plate. Ahead in the count 2-1, the dugout got rowdy, cheering on Reveles. He took a ball out of the strike zone, making it 3-1.
It was not only the dugout encouraging Reveles, but the fans were also getting into it. On the next pitch, Reveles dodged out of the way of an inside pitch for a bases-loaded walk and an RBI. After a strikeout from third baseman Clint Dodson, left fielder Niko Mendez stepped into the batter’s box.
After fouling off a 1-1 pitch out of play, third base coach Aaron Rowand was telling Mendez to stay on it. Two pitches later, Mendez did some damage. On a 2-2 count, Mendez hit a hot shot up the middle for a two-run RBI single, making it 12-4.
Riverside starting pitcher Jake Valenzuela was impeccable in his outing. The Fullerton offense was unable to solve Valenzuela the entire game. Valenzuela mixed up his pitches and threw the Hornets’ timing off during each plate appearance.
“We definitely could have had better at-bats, 100%. We were in between pitches, and we were facing a really good pitcher there. That’s where we got to step up and put up better at-bats, which we couldn’t do today,” said second baseman Coen Goeas.
He retired the first eight batters to start the game, before Kai Hopfel walked in the bottom of the third inning. Hopfel spoiled three pitches to keep his at-bat going. His teammates were up in the dugout, clapping and chanting after he drew a walk.
Right fielder Jake Starr placed a perfect bunt down the third base line. Gray let it roll to see if it would go foul, but it stayed fair and went into shallow left field. Hopfel saw that nobody was covering third base at the time and decided to advance on the play. Riverside pitcher Valenzuela went over to cover the bag, as Gray threw it over to third base and Valenzuela tagged out Hopfel to end the inning.
“That’s the reigning conference pitcher of the year. They have a 2.80 ERA on the whole season; they’re probably the number one ERA in the whole state of California. We didn’t do a great job. As a freshman last year, was voted the [OEC] MVP on the pitching side,” said Baum.
In the fifth inning, designated hitter Carlos Barrios lined the first pitch he saw down the right field line for a double. Then Goeas smoked a three-hopper over to shortstop Heidler, who was unable to make a play on it. The ball hit off the top of Heidler’s glove and trickled into left field as Barrios scored the first run of the game.
“I knew that he was gonna come with an offspeed pitch, I was looking for a pitch I could drive, a pitch that I could handle. We’re big on having an approach at the plate, stuck to my approach, and got a pitch I could handle,” said Goeas.
Fullerton will travel to Riverside on Thursday for game two of a three-game series. Game time is at 2 p.m.
