"Don't chase crooked numbers."
It has been a lesson that San Bernardino Valley College baseball coach Jason Kounas has been preaching to his team in this young season. He has been pushing his pitchers and defense to keep opponents from blowing the game open with big innings - get out of innings by only giving up one run instead of two or three or more.
Wednesday afternoon, that's what the Wolverines did in five of the first six innings - keep visiting Rio Hondo College from breaking open a big inning, giving up a single run in those five frames. So when the Wolverines began to rally with big innings of their own, they were only down 5-0.
The Wolverines scored three runs in the eighth and three in the ninth to beat Rio Hondo 6-5 in a nonconference game that was rescheduled from Tuesday due to rain.
The Roadrunners scored single runs in the first, second, third, fourth and sixth innings, but each time the SBVC defense came up with a big play to stop Rio Hondo in their tracks. In the second, first baseman Melchor Flores bobbled a two-out grounder, but was able to flip the ball to pitcher Diego Castillo just in time for the third out. In the third, the Wolverines trapped Joshua Perez in a rundown trying to advance to third on a grounder to shortstop. In the fourth and fifth innings, it was inning-ending double plays and in the sixth, reliever Salvador Villanueva picked Aaron Gutierrez off first.
All that was left for SBVC was to find the offense. It came to them in the eighth against the Rio Hondo bullpen. Ryan Callanan led off with a bunt single, and Melchor Flores followed with an infield single deep in the hole at short. Andrew Griffin was hit by a pitch to load the bases, and Nathan Campos-Jaramillo brought home a run after he too was hit by a pitch, ending the day for reliever Henry Parada. Ramon Brion came in and got Jason Delvillar to ground out on a high chopper to second, scoring Flores. Ignacio Zamora followed with a fly ball to left that score Griffin, making it 5-3 after eight.
In the top half, Noe Delgado, in his second inning of work, struck out the side - he struck out four in two innings - to set up the final rally.
Cy Robertson led off with a single, but was erased on a ground ball to third by Michael McQueen - but in a sign of things to come in the ninth, McQueen went to second as the throw from second in the attempt to turn the double play sailed out of play. Callanan followed by lifting a ball to left-center, but center-fielder Nolan Anguiano muffed the catch, allowing McQueen to move to third with Callanan reaching second.
Flores came up next, and his grounder to third was thrown away, allowing McQueen to score, Callanan to move to third, and Flores taking second. The Roadrunners went to the bullpen and brought in Dominic Versluis and intentionally walked Griffin to load the bases. Jaramillo flew out to left, scoring Callanan to tie the game with two outs. Delvillar came up next and launched a ball to the fence in right-center field to end the game.
Jaramillo led the way by going 2-for-3 with two RBI, while Delvillar ended 1-for-4 with two RBI.
Rio Hondo starter Camden Cooper went six innings, striking out seven and allowing three hits.