Cats win opening-day slugfest

The Saddleback baseball team defeated College of the Canyons, 14-13, on Friday in Santa Clarita.  The Bobcats rallied from a big deficit in a game that lasted nearly four hours.

Saddleback got off to a tough start, falling behind 7-1 over the first three innings.  Canyons had seven hits over the three innings, also taking advantage of a walk and two hit batsmen.

Saddleback trailed 7-2 heading to the sixth inning when the offense finally got on track.  The Bobcats exploded for six runs in the inning, sending 10 batters to the plate.  Wesley Hickey tied the game with a three-run homer, driving in both Dmitri Susidko and Cole Strane.  The next batter was Carter Enoch, who planted a second straight ball over the wall to give Saddleback its first lead of the season at 8-7.

Saddleback trailed 9-8 heading into the seventh inning when the offense again exploded.  The Bobcats had four hits in the inning, including three straight doubles from Austin Palmares, Strane and Susidko.  Enoch drove in the final run in the inning with a two-out single to right field to score Susidko.  It was one of four hits on the afternoon for Enoch and gave Saddleback a 12-9 lead.

Saddleback scored two more runs in the eighth inning as the bats continued to swelter.  The Bobcats had three hits in the inning and took advantage of some pitching woes for the Cougars.  Saddleback scored its first run of the inning on a balk, allowing Matthew Henning to cross the plate.  Later in the inning Jacob Hudson scored on a passed ball as the Bobcats built up a 14-9 advantage.

Canyons wouldn't go away, scoring three times in the bottom half of the eighth inning in pulling within 14-12.  The Cougars then got their first two runners on base in the bottom half of the ninth inning and scored a run on a defensive miscue, giving Canyons runners at second and third base with no outs in the inning and trailing 14-13.  The Bobcats then pulled off a defensive gem when Jung Jun Lee hit a ball to center field and Ryan Luce caught the ball and threw a dart to home plate to get the runner from third base, who had tagged up and tried to score on the play.

With two outs in the inning the game came down to a battle between Saddleback pitcher Jayden Graves and Canyons hitter Paul Lizzel.  Graves won the battle when he struck out Lizzel to end the game, giving Saddleback an exciting win on opening day and earning his first save of the season.

Saddleback had plenty of stars on offense.  In addition to Enoch collecting four hits, Strane, Henning and Hudson all had three hits apiece.  

Saddleback and Canyons will continue the home-n-home series on Saturday at Saddleback.  The first pitch is scheduled for 1:00 PM at Saddleback Field.