The American River College baseball team started the 2017 season in fine fashion, defeating West Valley College 5-1 at Beaver Field on Friday.  It was the Beavers first win over West Valley in their last 6 tries and the first season opening victory since 2013.  It didn't start well though as sophomore LHP Andrew Wiesenfarth (Rio Americano) was uncharacteristically wild, walking 3 in five innings of work, including the leadoff batter of the game, who then stole second and scored on a single.  He did settle down though and sophomore RHP's Micah Gunter (Valley Christian) and Tyler McCombs (Antelope) didn't allow a hit from the 3^rd inning until the 8^th.  The Beavers got some clutch defensive plays along the way as well, including C Joaquin Sequeira (Antelope) throwing out a runner stealing, a double play to end the first inning and several nice plays by freshman 3B Sonny Ledford (Rio Americano).  Offensively the Beavers started a little slow, but got on the board in the bottom of the 3^rdwhen sophomore 1B Tyler Swank (Del Campo) laced a bases loaded single to right to put the Beavers up for good.  DH Alex Dodd (River City) followed that up with an RBI groundout to put the Beavers up 3-1.  A.R.C. added a run in the 5^th and one in the 6^th to round out the scoring.  Freshman 2B Scotty Henrichs (Granite Bay) led the way with two hits on the day.  The teams meet again tomorrow at Beaver Field at noon to conclude their season series.