Baseball: Rio Hondo drops SCC series-opener to East Los Angeles

Center fielder Lucas Rocha had a pair of hits, including a double, and scored two runs to lead the Rio Hondo College offense in a 6-4 South Coast Conference loss on Tuesday at home against East Los Angeles College to open a three-game series.

The defeat dropped the Roadrunners to 11-16 overall and 4-7 in conference play. The series resumes on Thursday (April 5) at 2:30 p.m. in Monterey Park and wraps up on Saturday (April 7) at noon back in Whittier.

East Los Angeles (17-13, 7-5 SCC) jumped out to a 4-1 lead after three innings and never looked back. Trailing 1-0 in the first, Rio Hondo tied the game up thanks to an ELAC error that allowed Rocha to score.

The Huskies made it 5-1 thanks to a solo home run by Zech Jerrard, part of a 4-for-4 day at the plate for the ELAC left fielder.

But Rio Hondo cut into that lead with a pair of runs in the fifth and one more in the sixth. Tony Rosario came in to score on Marcos Rivas' ground out, Nick Ybarra lined a RBI single to drive in Rocha, and Aiden Gutierrez brought home Steven Mendoza with a single as well.

The Roadrunners had their chances late in the game but stranded eight runners over the final four innings of the contest.

Nicko Cottone put in a solid starting effort for Rio Hondo despite getting the loss. He went seven innings and allowed four earned runs and five hits. He struck out six and walked just one.