No. 6 Vaqueros drop 8-3 decision at Riverside

Riverside scored five runs in the first inning on Wednesday night and went on to hand SBCC an 8-3 nonconference baseball loss at Evans Sports Complex in Riverside.

Connor McManigal went 2-4 for the No. 6 Vaqueros (21-12), who were held to six hits by four Tiger pitchers. Nick King, Austin Monte and Dajohn Murray each drove in two runs for Riverside (18-15), which is ranked 17th in Southern Cal. The Tigers have won three straight and six of their last eight.

"They're a hot team and we played very uninspired baseball," said Santa Barbara coach Jeff Walker. "We didn't do a good job in the strike-throwing contest or throwing the ball around."

The Vaqueros took a 1-0 lead in the first when Noeh Martinez walked and went to second on a sacrifice by James Hill. Martinez took third and scored on back-to-back strikeouts where the batter reached first on a passed ball.

SBCC struck out eight times and left nine runners on base.

Riverside built a 5-1 lead in the bottom of the first on three hits, a walk and an error. Patrick O'Brien scored for SBCC in the third on an error. The Tigers added three more in the sixth to boost the lead to 8-2.

Justin Bruce went 5 2/3 innings, giving up eight runs (five earned) on 10 hits with four strikeouts and three walks. Bryan Conant got the win with three innings of scoreless relief.

The Vaqueros play another nonconference game on Thursday at West L.A., starting at 2:30 p.m.