The American River College baseball team finally jumped into the Northern California rankings at #18 this week, but they couldn't quite stop the #1 ranked Delta College Mustangs,a s they fell 8-5 at Beavers Field on Tuesday.  Delta scored first, with a single run in the 2nd inning off of Beavers ace Matt Gunter (Bella Vista).  The Beavers tied it in the 4th on an RBI double by 2B Steve Mercado (Antelope) which scored SS Cameron Bennett (Rio Linda) from first.  It was Mercado's first extra base hit of the season.  Delta scored twice in the 5th on a two out single.  The Beavers closed the gap to 3-2 in the bottom of the 5th on a sac fly by C Bryan Babcock (Antelope) who plated LF Jimmy Lunardelli (Oakmont) who led off the inning with a double to center.  The score remained 3-2 until both starters came out in the 8th inning.  Delta scored 4 times in the 8th inning off of reliever Kyle Beardsley (Franklin) with two of the runs being unearned due to a botched rundown.  A.R.C. battled back for three runs in the bottom of the 8th, with two runs scoring on an Alex Gaskin (Jesuit) grounder that was thrown away by Delta's shortstop.  Gaskin later scored on an RBI single by DH Dalton deVries (Oakmont) who had a pair of hits on the day.  That narrowed the score to 7-5, but Delta added a run in the 9th off of lefty reliever Kyle Grant (Burbank).  A.R.C. had a chance in the 9th after pinch hitter James Boitano (Argonaut) led off with a hit by pitch.  Freshman Mikey Ramirez (Del Campo) followed with a  pinch hit infield single, his first hit of the season.  CF Brandon Raposa then hit a sharp liner to short, and the Mustangs double Boitano off 2nd.  Cameron Bennett grounded out to end the game and comeback bid for the Beavers.  The two teams meet up again on Thursday in Stockton at 2:30 p.m.