Cats bounce back against Dons
Saddleback and Santa Ana to decide the series on Saturday
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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2 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 15 | 0 |
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1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 13 | 2 |
The Saddleback baseball team evened the series with Santa Ana College with a 13-5 victory on Thursday in Santa Ana. The two teams will play the rubber match on Saturday at Saddleback.
Saddleback was coming off its worst loss in quite some time after dropping the opening game of a three-game series with Santa Ana, 15-5, on Tuesday. The Bobcats completely reversed the tables, blasting the Dons in setting up a huge matchup on Saturday.
Saddleback had a 2-1 lead heading into the third inning when they erupted for nine runs in what was easily the biggest inning of the season. Saddleback sent 13 batters to the plate, grinding out eight hits in the inning. The Bobcats scored seven of the runs with two outs in the inning in blowing the game wide open. The big blow was a two-run triple from Jacob Hudson to give Saddleback a 10-1 lead. Hudson and Matthew Henning both reached base two times in the inning, with Hudson scoring twice.
Meanwhile, Saddleback had a decent start from Landon Gordon just two days after the Bobcats had to pitch two position players to close out the game on Tuesday. Gordon gave up a pair of earned runs through five innings before giving way to Jack Gallison in the sixth inning. Gallison pitched into the eighth inning before Jaden Sekhon took the team across the finish line. The Saddleback trio finished with eight strikeouts for the game.
Saddleback added two more runs in the seventh inning in opening up a 13-1 lead. The Bobcats had just one hit in the inning but took advantage of a pair of hit batsmen in increasing the lead to 12. It was two of four hit batters on the day as Santa Ana went through nine pitchers on the afternoon.
Saddleback finished with 15 hits for the game. Henning had arguably his best day of the season, reaching base five times by finishing 4-for-4 with a walk. Hudson found his way on base four times, finishing 3-for-4 with a walk and three runs-scored.
Saddleback is now 11-7 overall and 1-1 in Orange Empire Conference play after the win. The Bobcats and Dons will finish the series on Saturday at 12:00 PM at the Saddleback Baseball Complex.