Outflanked Pierce Not Outpointed : Baseball: Tournament outsiders, Brahmas can take inside track today after 4-1 victory.

The intruders crashed the party and have made themselves at home.

Pierce College looked awfully comfortable in a 4-1 victory over Riverside in a Southern California regional second-round baseball game Friday at Rancho Santiago.

The Brahmas (28-16), the Western State Conference South Division champions, are the only club in the four-team double-elimination tournament not from the Orange Empire Conference.

They’ll take a crack at Rancho Santiago at 11 a.m. in a winners’ bracket matchup. The Dons (37-9) defeated Saddleback, 14-3, Friday.

If they can duplicate their effort against Riverside (26-19-1), the Brahmas could give the top-seeded Dons a battle.

Pierce rallied behind right-hander Jason Warren (7-4), who worked 7 2/3 innings, with clutch hits by shortstop Jeff Shapiro and second baseman Cesar Martinez to win its 11th consecutive game.

“We got some runs on execution and a home run, and Warren did a great job,” said Bob Lofrano, Pierce coach.

Warren, a sophomore from Agoura High, scattered seven hits, struck out three and walked two. He was not in trouble until the eighth, when the Tigers scored. Until then, only two Riverside runners reached third.

The Brahmas scored single runs in the third, fourth, fifth and eighth innings off Tiger ace Travis Harford (9-4), who had won five of his previous six decisions.

In the bottom of the third, Casey Cote led off with a single to center and moved to second on a bunt. He stole third and scored on Martinez’s fly ball to center.

Shapiro, who said he hadn’t been hitting the ball solidly, put Pierce ahead, 2-0, with a home run over the left-field fence in the fourth.

“[Harford] just hung [a curveball],” Shapiro said.

Martinez increased the lead to 3-0 with a single to center in the fifth that drove in Dave Supple from second on a close play at the plate. Supple slid around the tag by catcher Brian Downs.

The Tigers pulled to within 3-1 in the eighth when Rudy Arguellas led off with a bunt single, took third on a double by Brian Rios and scored on an error by Cote.

Rios, however, was tagged out in a rundown between second and third. An inning later, the Tigers made another baserunning blunder when Diego Rodriguez tried to stretch into a double a one-out single to right and John Novak cut him down with a strong throw.

The Brahmas added a run in the eighth on a double by Shapiro and a two-out single by Dave Cipolla.

“I knew [Harford] wasn’t going to go curveball on me because I struck out on a fastball in my first at-bat and I hit the breaking ball out,” Shapiro said. “I expected a fastball and there it was.”

Brandon Nickens pitched the final 1 1/3 innings and picked up his seventh save.