Prep Baseball: Riverside Prep's patient approach draws 11 walks in victory over Excelsior

The Riverside Prep baseball team showed the ultimate display of patience Tuesday afternoon, recording 11 walks en route to the team’s 6-1 victory over Excelsior. 

The playing conditions were not friendly for base hits as the 20-mile-per-hour winds were howling and blowing in on the hitters. This helped Riverside Prep’s approach at the plate with a five-run win despite only recording two hits.

While the team may not have tallied much in the hit column, Riverside Prep coach Rick Rivera was happy with the way his team executed its game plan at the plate. 

“This league has great pitching,” Rivera said. “So I tell them that we have to work these guys. We can’t just go up there, especially with a young squad. We want to see pitches and later on in the game, we will start to get to them. The approach has worked and these young guys and even my older guys have bought in and it has taken us this far.” 

Riverside Prep did not have to wait much to get to Excelsior starting pitcher Brandon Steele. Steele hit the first batter of the game, who would score two batters later on a throwing error to second base that sent the ball to the outfield. Four of the next five batters recorded a walk to drive in two more runs, giving the Silver Knights a 3-0 victory after the first inning.  

That lead was all Tyler Herd needed to get comfortable on the mound. 

“Excelsior is not a bad team so to go into the second inning knowing that my offense had my back, that was huge for me,” Herd said.

Herd proved why he has been Riverside Prep’s ace all season with his performance against Excelsior. The senior right-hander threw a complete game, allowing just one unearned run on two hits with three strikeouts. 

“Tyler Herd is our leader, he’s a catalyst when he’s out on the bump. He goes, we go,” Rivera said. “The way he performed today, that is what we needed out of him. Excelsior is a great program that has been in control of this league for years and he just went out there and carried us on his back.”

The only trouble that Herd ran into was in the sixth inning. Quentin Krogsgaard reached on a single and advanced to third after a stolen base and passed ball. A ground-ball to shortstop was then thrown away as Krogsgaard game in to score. 

With a runner on second and no outs with the middle of the order due up, the Excelsior dugout started to show some signs of life after the error. Any momentum that the team had was quickly halted, as Herd induced a lineout to second base that froze the runner, turning into a double play. 

While it was a big play to swing the momentum back in Riverside Prep’s favor, Herd showed the leadership qualities Rivera praised as he was more concerned with how the play “got one back” for his shortstop. 

“Gage (Leighton) made a great catch and I wanted (Ethyn) Beltran to get something back because he had just made that error,” Herd said. “He was part of it, so that was great.” 

With the win, the Silver Knights move to 7-1 and have officially clinched a playoff berth. With two games remaining, Riverside Prep has a one-game lead over second-place Hesperia Christian.

Big Bear and University Prep are the two final opponents that stand between the team’s first league title since 2013. 

“Our mindset right now is to take care of our own business and don’t try and rely on anybody else,” Rivera said. “Our own fate is in our own hands. If we can just play quality, clean baseball and throw strikes, put the ball in play, then we will be okay.”