With the opportunity for a historic sweep of arch-rival Sac City College  as well as a 7 game road winning streak on the line, the American River College baseball team came up short on Saturday, losing 13-5.  The game was close through 5 innings as the Beavers took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first thanks to 2 out hits by RF Alex Gaskin (Jesuit), 1B Kirby Broadbent (Oakmont) and DH Dalton deVries (Oakmont).  Sac City answered right back with a two-out infield single to score the runner from second which was aided by a questionable call at first base.  The Beavers got the run back in the 2nd inning when 2B Steve Mercado (Antelope) lifted a fly ball to CF to score 3B Colton Freeman (El Camino) who had singled to lead off the inning.  Sac City answered back in the bottom half of the inning by scoring twice off of starter Tommy Balmain (Oakmont) who struggled with command throughout his outing.  The Panthers took the lead in the 4th scoring twice to chase Balmain from the game.  The Beavers answered back with two in the top of the 5th as they loaded the bases with no outs, and scored on a single by deVries and a groundout to third by LF Jimmy Lunardelli (Oakmont) who was robbed of a hit by the panthers third baseman, who was able to force out Broadbent at third.  LHP Kyle Grant (Burbank) walked the first two batters of the 5th inning and was relieved by RHP Christian Savage (Cosumnes Oaks).  The first batter bunted for a hit off of Savage to load the bases with no outs.  The Panthers would score three times in the bottom of the 5th on just two hits, one of them the bunt.  After adding a run in the 7th the Panthers broke it open in the 8th off of freshman LHP Mikey Ramirez (Del Campo) who made his college debut on the mound.  He was slated to be a starter for the Beavers but has been limited due to soreness until now. 

The Beavers start the BIG 8 Conference with a series victory over the Panthers and will face #1 ranked Delta College next week.  The first game of the series is at home at Beaver Field on Tuesday at 2:00 p.m.