The Rio Hondo baseball team faced Chaffey away from home on March 10 and lost by a score of 10-3. As Rio Hondo reaches the midway point of their season with only conference games left to play, they currently have an overall record of 7-9.

The Roadrunners came into the game having tied their second best scoring output of the season with 13 runs in a win against Cerro Coso on March 8 and looked to get their first conference road win against Chaffey that afternoon.

It was a promising start for the Roadrunners, as Designated Hitter R.J Romo had a RBI double in the first inning, bringing home Gabe Chavez and Jordan Abernathy to make it 2-0 at the top of the first inning.

Although Rio Hondo starting pitcher Joe Wills would have himself a game with 16 K’s, he had a rare first inning after immediately striking out three batters. Wills kept pitching after a pair of passed balls and would eventually strike out two more batters, giving him a total of five strikeouts in the first inning.

While things started off really well for Rio Hondo, Chaffey would go on to turn things around, scoring two runs at the bottom of the first inning and would continue to score three more runs in the second. They then got another run in the third inning to put the game 6-2 at the bottom of the third.

It took a while for Rio to get back in the scoring column and wasn’t until the seventh inning, when Chavez would score off of a couple of Chaffey errors making it a 6-3 game with hopes of a comeback.

However in the bottom of that inning, Chaffey effectively won the game after scoring four more runs giving them a final score of 10-3.

Rio had a chance in the eighth inning to get back in it after Romo had singled, Fernando Rosales got on base after an error and Matt Munoz walked to load the bases. It would be up to Chavez to bring them in, but he grounded out to seal the victory for Chaffey.

It would be Wills first loss in four starts, as he pitched for 6 1/2 innings while allowing six earned runs and 12 hits. Relief pitchers Anthony Franco and Jonathan Duran would go on to close the game with 1 2/3 innings remaining in the game.

Romo went 3 for 5 at the plate, including his RBI double in the first inning. He continued his hot hitting after going 4 for 4 on Tuesday now bringing him to go 7 for 9 this week with three doubles and three RBIs and raised his batting average to .365 for the season.

The loss dropped Rio Hondo to 7-9 overall and a 3-2 record in the conference while Chaffey goes to 10-5 and maintains their winning streak against the conference, now making them winners of five in a row.

The Roadrunners then went on to face College of the Desert away from home on March 12. The game ended 4-3 in favor of Desert and has now dropped Rio Hondo’s overall record to 7-10. Rio Hondo will now return home to take on LA Pierce on March 16 at 2:30 p.m.