March 19-23 will be a key stretch for the Rio Hondo men’s baseball team.  Even though the season hasn’t gone quite as planned for the Roadrunners, they can still make the playoffs.  They sit (8-11) overall and (4-4) in conference.  They have their hands full with three games in five days against the number one team in the conference.

Coming off two straight wins, the Roadrunners will face Mt. Sac in a crucial series.  Rio Hondo very nearly needs to win out the rest of the season but if they could at least win the series against Mt. San Antonio, it could keep them in the playoff running.  Mt.. Sac is (6-2) in the conference and (12-11) overall.  They sit atop the North part of the South Coast Conference, while Rio sits at fifth.

Rio Hondo has a team batting average of .280 and have scored 91 runs in 19 games.  Mt. Sac has a team batting average of .287 with 138 runs scored in 23 games.  The home run differential is six as Rio has hit four while Mt. Sac has hit 10.  Rio has a team ERA of 5.56 while Mt. Sac has a team ERA of 4.61.  Rio Hondo has 43 errors on the season while Mt. Sac has 34.  All these categories will get thrown out the window once the first game of the series starts on Tuesday March 19 at 2:30 p.m.  The first and last game of the series will be at Mt. Sac while the second game will be at Rio Hondo.  All games start at 2:30 p.m except for Saturday’s which will start at noon.

While Rio is the far inferior team on paper, anything can happen.  The Roadrunners will look to ride a wave of momentum and make it three wins straight.  Every game is huge for both teams as everyone is trying to take first in the division and getting a good playoff seed.  Come out and support Rio Hondo as they look to take down the reigning conference champs and eventually earn a playoff birth with 16 games left to make a push.