A laser beats the Lasers in 12
Cats end regular season with a walk-off homer
| Final (12) | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 13 | 0 |
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0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 14 | 3 |
The Saddleback baseball team defeated Irvine Valley College, 5-4, in 12 innings on Friday afternoon at Saddleback Field. The Bobcats swept inter-district rival IVC to head into the playoffs on a high note.
Saddleback has been playing its best baseball down the stretch, winning eight of its last nine games to finish 24-16 overall and 14-7 in Orange Empire Conference play. The exclamation point came on Friday when Cade Cerone hit a solo home run in the bottom half of the 12th inning to finish alone in third place in the conference standings.
It was a perfect ending to what has been an implausible number of close games for the season. The Bobcats have now played 18, one-run games for the year, finishing 9-9.
Friday's chapter was even more unexpected, because Saddleback entered the game having hit only one home run at home the entire season and were playing a lot of fresh jerseys with their playoff fate already determined entering the game.
Cerone's homer was hit first of the season in just his 22nd at-bat. It was a laser beam over the left-field wall, ironically, to beat the Lasers.
Saddleback and Irvine Valley started slowly as the game was scoreless heading into the bottom half of the fourth inning. The Bobcats broke the ice when Jacob Hudson singled home Austin Palmares with the opening run of the game.
Saddleback added two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, taking advantage of a pair of walks from the IVC pitching staff. Palmares walked with the bases loaded and one out to score Jake Natori. One batter later, Ryan Luce scored on a fielder's choice for a 3-0 lead.
Saddleback led 3-1, heading to the bottom of the sixth inning when they added an insurance run with three hits in the inning. The big blow was a single from Natori to score Daniel Herrera for a 4-1 lead.
Irvine Valley wasn't going to go down quietly and was looking for a comeback to beat their crosstown rivals. The Lasers scored three times in the top half of the seventh inning to tie the game, taking advantage of a defensive miscue from the Bobcat defense for the final run of the inning.
The two teams then went five straight innings without scoring a run. The Bobcats had bases loaded in both the seventh and eighth innings but were denied from scoring while IVC came up empty with the bases loaded in the top half of the ninth.
Saddleback finally struck in the bottom half of the 12th inning when Cerone entered the batter's box facing a position player on the mound with the Lasers running on fumes in their bullpen. Cerone took the at-bat to a full count before turning on a pitch and sending a laser beam over the left-field wall for the win.
Saddleback finishes the regular season 24-16 overall and in third place in the conference standings (14-7). The Bobcats will find out their playoff fate on Monday morning.