In the Jungle Mar. 16, the Rio Hondo College baseball team lost to El Camino Compton College by a score of 9-6. The game was filled with plenty of action, hits, and pitching. Compton had a total of nine runs on 21 hits while Rio had six runs on 10 hits. The Roadrunners used a total of seven pitchers. The conference loss to Compton drops Rio Hondo’s overall record to 11-8 and their conference record to 3-4.

The starting pitcher for Rio Hondo, Jake Gaudet, lasted only one inning allowing three runs on four hits. The damage was done when Guadet gave up a 3-run homerun to Compton’s slugger Allen Pacheco. Rio responded in the bottom of the first inning when R.J. Romo hit a double to score the speedy Nick Ybarra.

Another dagger struck Rio’s baseball squad in the top of the third inning when new pitcher Chris Velasquez gave up a solo home run to Javier Garcia. Once again Rio responded from a 4-1 deficit with some small ball action involving bunts and fielders choices.

Marcos Rivas grounded out the short stop earning runs batted in to score Danny Marquez. Next, batter Cesar Sandoval, singled to score Randy Buenrostro. The score was 4-3 when Christian Valdez stepped up to the plate and hit a hard ground ball to the shortstop and beat out the throw at first base. The error by the shortstop allowed runner Alex Rodriguez to score and tied up the game at 4-4.

Rio took the lead in the bottom of the fourth inning when Randy Buenrostro singled into left field to score baserunner R.J. Romo. Rio Hondo had its first lead of the game by the score of 5-4. Compton immediately responded in the top half of the fifth inning when Miguel Valdez singled in base runner Javier Garcia. In the bottom half of the inning the Roadrunners kept hope alive when Marcos Rivas scored off of a base hit by Chris Velasquez.

The game was all tied up in the 6th inning until Compton came roaring back with some key hits. In the top half of the inning Javier Garcia singled to score Ivan Navarro. Next hitter Allen Pacheco singled in Jorge Rivas.

From then on out the Roadrunners were shut out of the scoring bracket by solid pitching by Compton. Nicholas Guerra got the win for Compton pitching two innings only allowing one run. Rio Hondo pitcher Andrew Quillen got the loss for Rio although the team used many pitchers. After a loss Rio Hondo turned momentum around bouncing back Mar. 19 against Compton beating them by a score of 17-4. The next home game for the Roadrunners is Mar. 23 against East Los Angeles.