Conant's Walk-Off Single Gives Baseball 12-11 Playoff Opener Win

Riverside City College earned a lower No. 10 seed in the SoCal region, but it has the respect of many with a No. 10 ranking in the CCCSIA State Top 20 and a high RPI that had the Tigers at No. 4. On Friday, the Tigers threw everything at postseason newcomer and the No. 7 region-seeded Pasadena City College baseball team in their opener of a best-of-3, SoCal first round series.

Riverside hammered three home runs and took leads of 6-1 and then 8-4. But this is no ordinary PCC team, a squad that won the South Coast Conference North Division title and is No. 15 in the state rankings. At every Riverside push, the Lancers responded, including scoring five runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 9-8 advantage. Riverside went ahead 10-9, only to see PCC regain the lead again at 11-10 after just five innings. The Tigers tied it at 11-11 in the sixth. 

In the bottom of the ninth, it was SCC MVP and Lancers first baseman Jeremy Conant serving notice that PCC deserved its seeding as he singled up the middle to score Jose Jimenez and give Pasadena a 12-11 walk-off victory. Conant, who was 4-for-6, earlier in the game became PCC's single-season record holder for hits. He has 65, which beats the 1999 record of Kenny Okamuro (63). Conant's 127 career hits (and counting) already has the lefty-hitting sophomore as the all-time hits leader in school history.

[Editor's note: Conant was credited with a third-inning hit in a ruling change on a fly ball to left that dropped in, but was lost in the sky by RCC LF.]

PCC (25-13) takes a 1-0 series lead and faces Riverside (29-12) Saturday morning (May 6) at 11 a.m. in game 2. If Pasadena wins, they advance to the next round. If the Tigers win, the teams play game 3 30 minutes after the end of game 2. All games of the series are played at Brookside Park's Jackie Robinson Memorial Field.

While Conant was the hero at the plate, it was the pitching of sophomore reliever Nick Esparza that kept the Lancers in the game. Esparza entered the contest in the fourth after Riverside's Ryan Mota and Patrick Vizcaino hit tape-measure home runs to left that gave the Tigers an 8-4 lead. Esparza proceeded to keep Riverside down, hurling the final six innings, allowing just seven hits, one earned run and striking out eight. He is now 3-0 on the season and has eight saves to his credit.

Rightfielder Shane Ogata continues to be a spark in PCC's offense as he launched a home run to center in the second inning and finished 3-for-5 with three RBI. All 10 of PCC's players including both leftfielders Jared Esquivel and Nico Martinez had hits in the 18-hit attack. Jimenez, the team's third baseman, went 3-for-5 (two RBI), second baseman Andres Kim 2-for-5 (three runs), and catcher Jessie Garcia 2-for-4 (two RBI).

For Riverside, Vizcaino went 3-for-5 with his homer, a double, and five RBI. PCC knocked out Tigers' lefty ace Blake Tuthill, who was 10-1 coming into the game, in the fourth inning.

The teams combined for 37 hits in the game (19 by PCC, 18 by RCC). 

Kim's run in the bottom of the first on Garcia's RBI single made him PCC's single-season runs scored leader 40, accomplished in the team's 38th game.