Baseball: Rio Hondo surges to ninth straight win, beats Chaffey 13-4

Rio Hondo College continued its impressive late-season run as the Roadrunners picked up their ninth straight win, a 13-4 Foothill Conference victory over first-place Chaffey College at The Jungle on Tuesday.

Rio Hondo improved to 20-11 overall and 15-4 in conference play. The surging Roadrunners are just two games back of Chaffey (23-8, 17-2 FC) with five left to play, including the final two games of the crucial series against the Panthers.

The Roadrunners made a statement with their big win over Chaffey on Tuesday. Rio Hondo totaled 15 hits, including six for extra bases. Albert Perez banged out a pair of doubles as part of a three-hit game. He has been red hot over the last his last three games, as Perez has collected hits in nine of his last 15 at-bats with 7 RBI.

Mauricio Guadarrama, Jordan Abernathy, and Randy Buenrostro all smashed home runs for Rio Hondo. Holding a narrow 2-1 lead, the Roadrunners blew the game open with a three-run, third-inning.

Joe Wills improved to 7-1 overall this season with the win on the mound for Rio Hondo. He went 6 2/3 innings and allowed three earned runs and nine hits. Wills struck out five and walked just one. Emilio Sansores and Avery Vasquez closed out the victory with 2 1/3 combined innings of scoreless relief.

Game 2 of the three-game Foothill Conference series moves to Chaffey on Thursday (Apr. 21) at 2:30 pm with the finale back at Rio Hondo on Saturday at noon.