Cats get even to set up rubber match

The Saddleback softball team evened the series with Cypress College with a 5-4 win against the Chargers on Thursday at Bobcats Field.  Saddleback and Cypress will decide the series on Friday at Cypress.

Saddleback and Cypress has been an anticipated battle since the schedules came out and the two teams are now deadlocked at one game apiece heading into the final game of a three-game series on Friday.  The Bobcats got the best of the Chargers on Thursday, rallying from a four-run deficit.

Saddleback had a rough start, allowing four unearned runs over the first three innings as the defense had a tough time keeping the Chargers off the base paths.  Saddleback got things turned around in the bottom half of the third inning when they finally got on the board with a triple from Millie Maher to score Tessa Arciniega to cut the deficit to 4-1.

Saddleback cut into the lead further in the bottom half of the fourth inning when scoring twice for a huge momentum swing.  The Cats had three straight hits to start the inning, getting a single from Ka'ui Garcia, a double from Ehva Cifuentes-Zombulovic and a single from Colette Howren as the Bobcats cut the deficit to 4-3.

The score remained the same until the bottom half of the sixth inning when Saddleback struck for two more runs to take the lead.  Once again they had three straight hits to start the inning.  Garcia, Cifuentes-Zombulovic and Howren all had singles as the Bobcats tied the game at 4-4.  Two batters later, Lehua Garcia singled to load the bases with what was the fourth hit of the inning.  The next batter was Arciniega, who broke up the deadlock with a single to left field to score Howren with what would end up being the winning run.

Saddleback started Kylee Cammarato on the mound and she pitched a complete game in her first start in three weeks.  Cammarato spread around five hits over seven innings while striking out five in improving to 10-4 on the season. 

Saddleback is now 20-10 overall and 8-3 in Orange Empire Conference (OEC) play following the win.  The Bobcats are alone in second place in the OEC standings, one game back of Fullerton College. 

Saddleback and Cypress finish the series on Friday in Cypress at 2:00 PM.