Rio Hondo Men’s Baseball team completed a three-game series sweep against Cerro Coso College that began on April 12 with the finale ending on April 16 with Rio Hondo winning the game 16-4.

The Roadrunners’ first game of the series began on the road with red-hot pitcher Joe Willis taking the mound for Rio Hondo.

Willis, again, would put in a terrific outing for his team by holding Cerro Coso to only one run through six innings of work and striking out eight batters in the process.

Right-fielder Jordan Abernathy hit a three-run home run in the top of the third and the Roadrunners collectively added another three runs in the top of the fourth, which left the score at 6-1 by the time Willis was taken out of the game.

The Roadrunners’ bullpen could not hold the lead for Willis as Cerro Coso came roaring back with consecutive three-run innings in the seventh and the eighth.

With Cerro Coso now leading 7-6 at home, Rio Hondo showed its grit and determination by putting together a game-clinching top of the ninth by scoring three runs in the inning.

Led by the middle of their lineup, the game-winning RBI came from designated hitter R.J. Romo when he scored third-baseman Mauricio Guadarrama on a single, giving them the lead 8-7.

Relief pitcher Anthony Franco finished the ninth for the Roadrunners and ultimately picked up the win.

Rio returned home for the second game on April 14, and have not lost at “The Jungle” since late February.

That proved to be more of the same as the Roadrunners’ offense showed its firepower with Abernathy taking center stage with a perfect four for four game, with two walks and three RBIs.

But Abernathy’s three RBIs were outdone by center-fielder Fernando Rosales’ four runs batted in as he, too, made four hits on the day.

With run support coming early and often, starting pitcher Brady Carlson never seemed phased as his performance matched that of his teammates’ by pitching a stellar one-hit complete game.

Carlson took his pitching record to 5-3 by earning his team the 13-0 shutout.

The final game of the series was played at Cerro Coso College on April 16 with Rio continuing to dominate their conference by completing the sweep by a score of 16-4.

As it was for most of this series, Rio’s ability to score runs in bunches proved to be the deciding factor early, as they would score as many in the first inning as Cerro Coso would score in the entire game.

Abernathy and left-fielder Albert Perez, were the main catalysts for Rio’s offensive production, as the two of them collectively had more RBI’s than Cerro Coso had runs.

The 16-4 beatdown of Cerro Coso extends Rio Hondo’s winning streak to eight games and makes it 12 out of the last 13, with the one loss coming in extra innings.

Next up for the 19-11 Roadrunners is a three-game series within the conference against Chaffey College beginning at home on April. 19 at 2:30 p.m.

Game two begins at 2:30 p.m. on April 21 at Chaffey and the finale returns to “The Jungle” on April 23 beginning at noon.