Another Golden Rally

The Saddleback baseball team rallied for a 12-11 win over Golden West College on Thursday afternoon at the Saddleback Baseball Diamond.  It was second straight come-from-behind win against Golden West.

Saddleback was wearing the golden vest uniforms, which became a superstitious rallying point when they won the state title in 2024.  The last time they wore them was 12 days earlier when they rallied to score three runs in the final three innings at Grossmont College to pull out a 4-3 win over the Griffins. 

Thursday was more of the same as Saddleback trailed 11-6 heading into the bottom of the seventh inning and looking like a team that was ready to wilt in the 90-degree heat.  That was when the magical comeback started. 

The Bobcats scored three times in the bottom half of the seventh inning as Wesley Hickey sparked the comeback with a three-run homer to right field.  The homer ended a season-long drought at home as Saddleback had gone homer-less in the first nine games at home this season.  It was also the third homer of the season for Hickey, and the first since February 5.

Saddleback trailed 11-9 heading into the bottom of the ninth inning when lightning struck a second time.  The Bobcats took advantage of some pitching woes for Golden West as the Rustlers hit three batters in the inning.  David Vergel de Dios led off the inning by getting plunked before Cole Strane advanced him to third base with a single to right field.  The Rustlers then made a pitching change and Dmitri Susidko had a sacrifice fly to center field to get Saddleback back within one run at 11-10.  The next two batters were Jack Borges and Hickey, who were both hit by pitches to load the bases.  Jacob Hudson then hit a ball up the middle that was played by the shortstop for a force out at second base, but the throw to first base was late on the double-play attempt and Strane crossed home plate with the tying run.  The final batter was Matthew Henning, who hit the first pitch into short center field for the winning hit as Borges crossed home plate.

Saddleback's pitching staff was victimized by a couple of errors in the field as Golden West scored eight unearned runs for the day.  Landon Gordon started and pitched 5.2 innings before giving way to the bullpen.  After stints from Ryan Rios and Jack Gallison, reserve outfielder Jake Natori was called upon to enter the game with two batters on base and no outs in the top half of the ninth inning.  Natori pulled another feat of magic, getting a fly out and then pulling off one of the strangest double plays to ever get recorded into the books.  With runners on first and second, Golden West sent both runners and Natori guessed right, throwing to third base to get the runner from second in a rundown.  The runner was eventually tagged out, with the runner from first base caught up inbetween first and second base.  The Bobcats then got the other runner in a run down and he was also tagged out for a rare double play.

Natori ended up picking up the win after shutting down the Golden West offense to pick up his first win of the season. 

Henning had a big day at the plate, reaching base four times by going 2-for-3 with a pair of walks.  Saddleback's offense had 10 walks and five hit batters for the day. 

Saddleback is now 13-8 overall and 3-2 in Orange Empire Conference play following the win.  The Bobcats and Rustlers will wrap up the series at Golden West tomorrow at 1:00 PM.