Cats survive against "The Hive"

The Saddleback baseball team defeated Fullerton College, 9-8, on Thursday afternoon at Saddleback Field.  The Bobcats are alone in fourth place in conference play with seven games remaining.

Saddleback had the bats going for a second straight game against Fullerton.  The Bobcats jumped out to a big lead, taking advantage of some pitching wildness and then making it count with timely hitting.

Saddleback scored in each of the first four innings in jumping out to a 6-1 lead.  The Bobcats had three runs in the fourth inning, energized by a run-scoring triple from Wesley Hickey.

Saddleback looked like they were in total control heading to the top half of the seventh inning with an 8-3 lead.  That's when Fullerton made things interesting, scoring five times.  Saddleback retired the first two batters before Fullerton had six straight batters reach base.  The Bobcats helped out with two walks and a wild pitch while the Hornets had four hits in the inning. 

Saddleback wasted no time in responding, scoring a run in the bottom half of the seventh inning in grabbing back the lead at 9-8.  The big blow was a single from Jack Borges to score Hickey, who had walked to start the inning.

From that point forward, Ryan Rios (5-2) shut down Fullerton the rest of the way in picking up the win.  Rios pitched the final 2.1 innings, allowing only two hits while striking out two.

Jack Borges reached base in five at-bats, finishing 1-for-1 with four walks.  Saddleback hitters had 10 walks and two hit batsmen on the day while belting out 10 hits.  Hickey and Carter Enoch both had two hits apiece on the afternoon.

Saddleback is now 18-15 overall and 8-6 in Orange Empire Conference play following the win.  The Bobcats are now alone in fourth place in conference play, one game back of third place Cypress.

Saddleback and Fullerton will resume the series on Friday at Fullerton College.  The first pitch is scheduled for 2:00 PM in Fullerton.