BEAVERS TAKE TWO FROM SOLANO

American River College finished up the pre-season portion of the schedule with a pair of wins against Solano College on Thursday and Friday this week.  The Beavers traveled to Solano on Thursday and pulled out a 4-3 victory thanks to a three run first inning highlighted by sophomore RF Michael Grijalva’s (Ponderosa) two run double.  The Beavers held the lead until the 5^th when Solano tied the score on a pop-up that landed between three players.  ARC got the go-ahead run in the 7^th on a sac fly line drive to right by freshman 2B Nick Ochoa (Segerstrom) which scored Blake Yuyama (Kennedy) from third.  Solano almost won the game via walk off homer in the bottom of the 9th but the long fly ball was caught at the fence by freshman LF Trevor Crockett (Del Campo).  Sophomore closer Christian Lucero (River City) picked up his state leading 5^th save of the year to close it out.

On Friday it took the Beavers bats a while to cash in a run as the squad had at least one runner in scoring position in 4 of the first 5 innings but couldn’t get one in.  Finally, down 2-0 after 5 solid innings from sophomore RHP Tyler Quintanilla (Summit Shasta), ARC got on the board as Nick Ochoa scored on a wild pitch to make it a 2-1 game.  Sophomore C Kristoff Swanson (Del Oro) later scored on a single by freshman 2B Marcellas Flenory (Antelope) that took a high hop over the Solano shortstops head.  Solano regained the lead in the 7^th on a sac fly but ARC came right back to tie it up in the bottom of the 7^th on a pinch hit double by sophomore Josiah Taylor (Alpha Charter).  The deadlock was once again broken by Solano in the 8^th after a run scored on a wild pitch by freshman RHP Kyle Ablog (Casa Roble) to put Solano up 4-3.  ARC finally got the break they needed in the bottom of the 8^th and got their first lead of the game thanks to 5 runs, highlighted by a game tying error on a fielders choice by Grijalva on a double play ball that would have ended the inning.  Sophomore CF Lincoln Orellana (Sheldon) then tripled to right to give the Beavers the lead.  Orellana would score on a pinch-hit double by freshman Dominic Ott (Woodcreek).  Nick Ochoa then singled to right to bring home two more runs and give the Beavers an 8-4 lead.  Solano made it interesting in the 9^th by scoring twice off of Lucero but Blake Yuyama came in and got the final out on a fly out to right.

American River College will begin BIG 8 Conference play next week as they open up with a three game series against cross-town rival Sacramento City College on Tuesday at Sac City.  The two teams will play at Beaver Field on Thursday at 2:00 pm before finishing the series on Saturday back at Sac City.