Saturday night provided Newport Beach Riptide fans with reason to celebrate, as the Riptide downed the SoCal Catch at Biola University to move to 1-0 on the young campaign.
After battling early control issues, Justin Zielinsky focused to pitch five stellar innings of two-run ball on his way to earning the win. Tim Hergert reached base three times and scored twice, Cole Taylor rebounded from some defensive struggles to swat three hits in five at bats, Bryan Menedez had three hits of his own, and Josh Harbolt walked three times in four plate appearances.
After surging ahead 2-0 on the back of RBI singles by Cooper Esmay and Julian Flanary, the Catch surrendered runs in the third and fourth innings to knot the game at two before the Riptide blew things open with a four-run fifth inning.
In addition to pushing the first run of the game across, Esmay tormented the Riptide pitching staff with disciplined plate appearances on his way to a four-hit performance.
Despite a 2-run seventh inning, the Catch never seriously threatened to close the gap against the Riptide bullpen. After adding a run in the top of the ninth inning on an RBI triple from Gray, the Matt Silberman quieted the last of the Catch lineup and sent the Riptide home winners for the first time this season.
The Riptide and Catch meet again tomorrow at 1pm again at Biola. An audio feed of the game will be streamed online and accessible through the team website and twitter page.