The host Reedley College Tigers started fast and held on for a wild 18-10 win over De Anza College in front of a near-capacity crowd at Tiger Field Saturday afternoon. Reedley's Orin Hirschkorn hit a grand slam home run on the game's 33rd pitch as part of a six-run first inning. But six Tiger pitchers combined to walk 14 in and hit three batters to keep the Mountain Lions in the game.

Reedley starting pitcher Will Gagnon did not allow a hit in his three and third innings of work but walked six and hit a batter. Jobe Olson (Laton) was credited with the win after working out of the jam.

The 2023 Reedley College Baseball tournament begins on Thursday afternoon with a 2 pm matchup between the Oxnard College Condors (1-1) against the 1-0 Tigers. It will be followed by the scheduled 5:30 pm contest with Sierra College (1-0 going into a Tuesday contest with Santa Rosa) and the 1-1 Santa Ana College Dons.

The Friday schedule begins with a 1 pm matchup between Oxnard and Sierra before the Tigers take on Santa Ana at 4:30 p.m. The Saturday schedule starts at 11 am with Santa Ana taking on Oxnard before Reedley and Sierra are scheduled to tangle at 2:30 p.m.

Reedley takes on Cuesta at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 7.

In the win over DeAnza, all but one of the Tiger starters had at least one base hit in Reedley's 19-hit attack. Lee Trevino had three singles while Roman Rosales had a single, double and triple. Both scored three runs. Hirschkorn also added a double but struck out three times. Ryan Tiger contributed two singles, a double, and a sacrifice fly. Dusty Vela had a single and a double while Mike Rios added a pair of singles.

After putting two base runners on in the top of the second inning, Gagnon came back to strike out the side.

The game was delayed 50 minutes as the umpires reportedly got confused about the starting time. They reportedly thought it was a 2 pm. start instead of the regular 1 p.m. start.

By: Will Goldbeck