The Rio Hondo baseball team fell short in a fourteen inning loss to Antelope Valley College April 11 at The Jungle. The Roadrunners tallied up ten runs on nineteen hits but couldn’t hold off the Marauders. RHC trailed behind AVC the entire game starting off in the top of the first inning.

Second Basemen for AVC, Michael Behen, had a RBI on a fielder’s choice that brought in Frankie Linstrom. Starting pitcher for the Roadrunners, Edmundo Fernandez pitched five innings giving up nine hits and allowing seven runs.

In the following inning, the Marauders jumped out to an early 3-0 lead when John Serrato hit a two RBI double to bring in Kyle Lathrop and Anthony Parisi.

Antelope Valley scored once again in the top of the third inning when Parisi doubled to bring in two runs. On the double Joseph Cochran and Daniel Gomez both came in to score. With an early 5-0 deficit, Rio Hondo responded in the bottom half on the third inning when power hitting R.J. Romo doubled in the left-center gap to bring in Marcos Rivas and Gabe Chavez.

Just when it started to look bright for Rio Hondo the aggressive baserunning of Antelope Valley paid off in the top of the fourth when Behen stole second base while Serrato scored from third. The following top half of the fifth inning AVC tacked on another run when Ethan Avant scored on a wild pitch.

It was 7-1 going into the bottom of the fifth inning when the Roadrunners’ bats came alive. After Chavez and Nick De La Rosa both got on base, R.J. Romo stepped up to the plate and belted a three-run home run, clearing the left field fence in the Jungle.

After the home run sparked up the energy in the dugout, Josh Sabajan singled in Randy Buenrostro to make it a 7-5 game.

Moving on to the bottom of the ninth inning the Roadrunners were trailing 9-6 when some comeback heroics took place. Rivas and Romo both were on base when Buenrostro hit a clutch double to bring them both in and make it a one run game.

The bases were loaded when a wild pitch by Alex Ravago allowed Buenrostro to score and tie up the game. The game then headed into extra innings. The excitement continued in the top of the fourteenth when AVC scored off of a base hit by Parisi bringing in Avant.

The deciding run was given up by Brady Carlson who also ended up taking the loss, changing his record to 3-2 on the season. The Roadrunners fell to 16-14 on the season looking forward to their next game April 13th in Oxnard which they also ended up losing 6-5. Updating their overall record to a game above .500 at 16-15.

Rio Hondo next has an away game against El Camino April 18. With only five games remaining in the regular season the Roadrunners look to get back on the winning side to keep their playoff hopes alive.