American River College and # 7 ranked Mission College of Santa Clara were locked in a pitching duel for 9 innings on Thursday, but the Beavers defense undid things in a hurry, causing the Beavers to lose the game 6-1 in 10 innings.  A.R.C. starter Dillon Bowers (Dripping Springs, TX) and Mission College's pitchers were both on top of their game for the first 9 innings.  Bowers allowed just an unearned run in the 8th inning, throwing 7 1/3 innings and scattering 5 hits to the hot hitting Saints.  Mission came in hitting .342  as a team on the season.  Mission's run came in the 8th after a leadoff error on Beavers 2B Robert Contreras (Antelope) allowed the leadoff batter to reach.  He later scored on a single off of freshman reliever Ian Codina (Oakmont) to tie the game at one. 

The Beavers had scored in the 5th when, with two outs and nobody on, Contreras was hit by a pitch.  LF Mike Hatfield (Del Campo) then drew a walk and SS Jared Biggs (Del Campo) singled to right center to give the Beavers their only run of the game. 

The score remained 1-1 until the 10th when the defense had a major melt-down.  Mission's first hitter of the inning hit a groundball to short, which Biggs mishandled for an error.  Codina got the next batter to strikeout after a stolen base.  He walked the next batter to put runners at 1st and 2nd with one out.  Mission's next batter, Blake Billinger chopped a single up the middle to score the runner from second to give Mission the 2-1 lead.  Codina then tried to pick off the runner at first but threw the ball down the line to move the runners up to 2nd and 3rd.  Codina got the next batter to hit a sharp grounder to Biggs at short with the infield in to keep the runners at 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs.  The next batter hit a routine chopper to short but Biggs' throw was off-line for his 3rd error in the last two innings, which allowed another run to score and put Mission up 3-1.  The next batter hit a slow chopper to third which went under the glove of a charging Brayden Gomez (Bella Vista) at third and the ball went down the left field line for a double which scored two more.  A couple of singles after that allowed Mission to add another run and go up 6-1.

The Beavers have not allowed an earned run in the past 30 innings, but have allowed 10 unearned runs in that span.  They have allowed 30 unearned runs in their 13 games so far this season.

Mission and A.R.C. will play again in Santa Clara at Mission College on Saturday at 1:00 p.m.