Six outs. That’s it. Six outs.
After a trying and troublesome start to the season, including a sweep in Palm Springs just a week ago, the Orange County Riptide are suddenly within six outs of a first-place tie atop the SCCBL standings.
Entering a daunting stretch of four games in three days, the boys from Orange County recognized the urgency surrounding each precious league game and demonstrated their resilience in the face of an overall record well below .500.
With their role in the league landscape still open for casting, the Riptide exploded out of the weekend starting blocks with six runs in the bottom of the first inning on Friday against the Inland Valley Bucs. Riding the back of six strong innings from starting pitcher Nick Tanner and timely hitting, the ‘Tide cruised to a 9-1 victory at home and, more importantly, a 1-0 record on the weekend.
The same gift wrapped opportunities that had been handed to the Riptide in previous games presented themselves in Friday’s game as well. Errors, walks, and hit batsmen by opposing pitchers. The striking difference, however, rests in how the team fared in turning those gifts into runs.
Unlike their 12-1 debacle in Palm Springs where the Power were charged with five errors but allowed just one run on a balk, the Riptide capitalized on two early errors from the Bucs en route to their six-run first inning. The team, for the first time this season, created its own luck and took advantage of the gifts it received; there were no free passes against this version of the Orange County Riptide.
Following Friday’s resounding win and offensive explosion, the ‘Tide took to the road for the second half of their home-at-home series with the Inland Valley Bucs. Their objective for the day? Move to 2-0 on the weekend.
Looking to sweep, Orange County threw future Wichita State Shocker Justin Seiwald to the mound and, after some early hiccups, watched in amazement as he dazzled with the most dominant start by any Riptide pitcher this summer. In seven innings of work, Seiwald was charged with only a single run, all while notching 12 strikeouts—he entered the day leading the team with 13 total punchouts, across three starts.
Only after Seiwald exited the game did the Bucs so much as sniff a path back into contention. Needing only six more outs, the Riptide bullpen failed to escape trouble in the eighth and saw their two-run lead vanish. Suddenly, the ninth inning was upon them and the game that they had dominated stood in a 3-3 deadlock.
While the disappointment of allowing the lead to slip out of their fingers could have been enough to sink the Riptide into a crushing nine-inning loss, the orange and blue decided to fight back and ty to steal the game they had previously held in hand.
After four more innings of playing toe-to-toe with the Bucs and 12 innings overall, the Riptide finally conceded the winning run. The loss certainly hurt, but exhibiting such resilience presented their brass with a silver lining in the midst of Saturday’s disappointment.
This team was not broken, rather it was just starting to get its legs under it. The team failed to meet the day’s objective, but grew closer in the process. The possibility for a four-win weekend had flown out the window, but two more opportunities to win presented themselves in the form of a doubleheader at Grossmont College against Team San Diego.
With pitching depth a considerable question mark for Jason Smith’s squad, the Riptide received a heroic performance from one of the most unsuspecting pitchers on the staff. Faced with the difficult task of spot-starting the opening game of a double header with crucial league implications, Roberto Johnson took to the mound and delivered a gem by swallowing up eight innings on 116 pitches, while allowing only three runs and lifting his ball club to an 8-3 win.
The offensive support behind Johnson was a positive in and of itself, but the larger victory in game one was saving the bullpen for game two. Playing for a sweep in San Diego, the Riptide set themselves up for a fantastic finish on Father’s Day.
Just a win away from launching themselves firmly into contention for first place in the SCCBL standings, the Riptide looked to Kyle Beadles to test his luck in his first extended action for Orange County after missing the entirety of his college season with an arm injury.
Untested as a starter, Beadles fired five innings of one-run ball and left in a 1-1 deadlock. When the offense finally produced a lead to jump out in front 2-1, new Riptide pitcher Jackson Rees slammed the door shut behind him and carried his teammates the distance. Pitching four innings of shutout relief, Rees—the first of three mid-season pitching additions to arrive—wowed his teammates in his debut.
With two more arms set to join the action in the coming weeks, reinforcements might be the factor to push this team over the edge.
Riding the momentum of their fantastic 3-1 weekend, the kids from Orange County nailed down their position in the upper echelon of the league race entering the stretch run of league play. Nearly at the halfway point in the SCCBL season, the team further cemented its spot in the top three by drubbing the Inland Valley Pirates to the tune of an 11-0 demolition.
With the final game of the season series with the Pirates standing between the Riptide and their weekend date with the first-place San Diego Force, the Riptide, who are getting hot at just the right time, will look to finish off the sweep.
Despite their slow start to the season and the painful loss of second baseman Stephen Dubb to a fractured jaw, the Riptide sit in third place with only the six outs they failed to record on Saturday between them and a share of first-place. Having won four out of their last five SCCBL contests, the orange and blue is brimming with confidence moving forward.
If you haven’t heard, there’s a new advisory in from the county lifeguard: stay out of the water, the Riptide is swirling stronger than ever and you might just get sucked in.