The Rio Hondo men’s baseball team was knocked out of the first round of the Southern California Regional Playoffs by Golden West College in a best-of-three game series that began on May 6 at their opponent’s home field.

Joe Wills took the mound for the Roadrunners in game one. Wills had been the team’s ace all season long, and had been pitching very well.

Before even taking the mound, Wills had a one-run cushion to work with after designated-hitter R.J. Romo singled home shortstop Gabe Chavez.

More run support would come in the second and third innings when third-baseman Mike Hernandez scored second-baseman Mauricio Guadarrama off of a single, then center-fielder Fernando Rosales picked up another RBI for the Roadrunners in the third.

The game appeared to be setting up nicely for the visitors, but Golden West would begin to chip away at the three-run deficit in the bottom of the third.

Center-fielder Philip Knapp got one run back for the home team and his teammates would tie the game at three runs apiece by the end of the fourth inning.

Tied at three, Rio Hondo left-fielder Albert Perez put his team in front in the top half of the fifth, after knocking in two runs with a double.

But just as they did in the previous inning, Golden West had an immediate response when first-baseman Cody Marshall pulled his team to within a run by picking an RBI in the fifth inning.

The score remained 5-4 in favor of Rio Hondo all the way up until the bottom of the eighth inning when Marshall, again, came up big for his team by tying the game at five with another RBI single.

Rio Hondo could not respond with a run of their own in the top half of the ninth inning, ultimately leaving the door open for the home team to take home game one in dramatic fashion, and they did.

A ninth inning walk-off sacrifice fly by Golden West catcher Chris Gilbody, was all it took for his team to pick up the pivotal game one victory by a score of 6-5.

Game two was again played at Golden West the following day, with Cameron Legrand taking the mound for Rio.

Just like he had done in the first game, Romo picked up a run for Rio Hondo in the first frame as his single brought Chavez home.

The Roadrunners remained ahead 1-0 until the third inning, when Golden West third-baseman Michael Fuchs tied the game with an RBI single.

Entering the playoffs, Rio’s offense had been hitting at a very prolific pace, but Golden West did a tremendous job of keeping the Roadrunners’ offense from getting going and did not allow them to score another run.

The go-ahead run, and ultimately, the winning run came in the seventh inning, when second-baseman Dillon Persinger doubled home Gilbody.

Leading 2-1, Golden West would seal its place in the next round of the Southern California Regional Playoffs by exploding for four runs in the final innings of Rio Hondo’s season.

Romo lead the Roadrunners offense that afternoon going three for four at the plate with Rio Hondo only getting a total of five hits as Golden West shutout the team in the remaining eight innings of the game.

The Roadrunners finished their season with an overall record of 24-14, and 19-5 within their conference, with a ten-game winning streak that began on the final day of March and lasted until mid-April. Rio Hondo ended up in second place in the last season of the Foothill Conference and will now compete in the South Coast Conference next year.

Rio Hondo also had a team batting average of .314 while scoring over six runs a game. Overall, the team’s season was a succesful one and Head Coach Mike Salazar helped lead Rio Hondo to their 12 consecutive postseason appearance in the program’s history.