For American River College it was the same old song and dance as of late.  A little bad luck here, a mistake there, and boom…a big inning for the other team.  The Beavers did get on the board first, scoring in the bottom of the first on a sacrifice fly by RF Brandon Pelechowicz (Yuba City) which plated DH Rylan Pope (McClatchy) who had singled earlier in the inning.  The Beavers struck again in the 2^nd inning, thanks to a triple to center by LF Jackson Nichols (Valley Christian) which scored 3B Luke Haney (Oak Ridge) who had doubled to lead off the inning.  The Beavers had a chance to extend the lead but could not score Nichols from 3^rd with one out.  The Pirates got a run back in the top of the 3^rd with a little good luck on their side.  The Modesto catcher Caleb Hendricks hit a routine line drive to left that on the first bounce took a wicked hop about 10 feet over the head of LF Jackson Nichols, resulting in a two out triple.  Hendricks then scored on a wild pitch to make the score 2-1.  Modesto added three runs in the 4^th inning, two on a sacrifice fly.  With one out and runners on 1^st and 2^nd, the Pirates got a fly ball to right which saw the MJC runner tag up from 2^nd to 3^rd.  There was a close play at third that saw Haney and the Modesto runner get tangled up.  During the confusion, the Modesto baserunner at 1^st moved to 2^nd and Haney's throw appeared to be in time to get the out but the ball came out of SS Bryce Sabatke's (River City) glove, allowing the runner on third to come home and score for the third run of the inning.  The score remained 5-2 until the top of the 7^th when with two outs Modesto's SS JR Bedford launched a grand slam over the center field fence to put MJC up 9-2.  ARC managed to score three unearned runs in the bottom of the 9^th to make the score look a little better, but the result was still a 9-5 loss.  The two teams will finish their 2026 BIG 8 Conference series on Friday at Jerry Streeter Field in Modesto with an 11:00 am start to try and beat the incoming storm.