Thursday, Feb. 7, the Rio Hondo men’s baseball team hosted the San Diego Mesa College Olympians at the campus of Rio Hondo College. The Roadrunners came into this 3-0 while the Olympians got off to a slow start this season and visited Rio with a 1-3 record.

The Roadrunners were the favorite but that didn’t stop San Diego at all. They ended up routing the Rio Hondo Roadrunners 10-0.

Rio Hondo was unable to keep the winning streak alive ending it at three. The home field advantage, at what people in the know call the “Jungle,” was nonexistent. San Diego Mesa did everything better than Rio Hondo in all facets of the game. They hit better, pitched better, played better defense and were the superior team on this given afternoon. The two hour plus drive for the Mesa squad didn’t even phase them, picking up their second win of the season.

The bats for Rio didn’t show up as they were held to zero runs on six hits.  While the San Diego Mesa Olympians put up a whopping 10 runs on 11 hits. Mesa drew blood in the second inning and Rio wasn’t able to answer.

Not only did Rio have to face their first loss of the season but also have to deal with an injury to a key starting pitcher in their rotation. Right-handed pitcher no. 14, R.J. Van Kampen was taken out in the third inning from what appeared to be an elbow injury.

However, a source close to the team told me after the game that “he’s okay, he just said it was a little tight.”

That moment, though, was when it started to go downhill for the home team. Rio Hondo used a total of seven pitchers compared to just three for San Diego.

The effort was non-existent as they seemingly took the opponent for granted. Stranding multiple runners in multiple innings and playing sloppy as they finished with two errors.

There’s no rest for the wicked though, as Rio Hondo will travel to College of the Canyons tomorrow at 10 a.m. for what will be the second game of three in a span of three days.