Cats down Birds in playoff opener

The Saddleback baseball team opened the 3C2A Southern California Regional Tournament with a 7-2 victory over Cerritos College on Saturday at College of the Desert.  It was win No. 400 for head coach Sommer McCartney. 

Saddleback had to be patient.  The Bobcats were all ready to go on Friday morning, only to wake up and find out that the field at College of the Desert was underwater due to an irrigation mishap. The game was moved back to 3:00 PM, 5:00 PM and 7:00 PM before finally being postponed until Saturday.  Finally, 26 hours later the field was ready and so were the Bobcats. 

Saddleback and Cerritos took some time to get the bats going.  The Bobcats finally broke the ice in the bottom half of the fourth inning when Cole Strane laid down a sacrifice bunt and Carter Enoch scored from third base with the opening run of the game. 

Cerritos tied the game at 1-1 in the top half of the fifth inning, but Saddleback struck back immediately in the bottom half of the inning to take back the lead.  The Bobcats had three singles in the inning, with Jack Borges driving in Matthew Henning for a 2-1 advantage.

Saddleback hit another gear on offense in the bottom half of the sixth inning when it scored four times to take a 6-1 lead.  The Bobcats had four hits and a walk in the inning and took advantage of a Cerritos error in taking a commanding lead.  The final blow was a single from Enoch to drive home Wesley Hickey for a five-run advantage.

The 6-1 lead was plenty for the Saddleback pitching staff.  Jace Barajas started the game and went six innings in improving to 5-3 on the season.  He gave way to Jayden Graves, who carried the Bobcats the rest of the way.  The pitching duo held Cerritos to seven hits while walking three and striking out seven.

Henning and Borges both reached base three times for the day.  Henning was 2-for-3 with a walk and two runs-scored while Borges finished 2-for-3 with a walk and three RBI.

Saddleback is now 25-16 overall following the win.  It is the first time the Bobcats have been nine games over .500 this season as Saddleback has now won five straight games and nine of its past 10. 

Saddleback will play a double-header on Sunday.  They will open with College of the Desert at 11:00 AM on Sunday before playing Cerritos at 3:00 PM.  Desert fell to Cerritos, 14-2, later in the day on Saturday.

GAME NOTE:  Sommer McCartney won his 400^th career game as the head coach for Saddleback on Saturday.  McCartney (400-218) trails only Jack Hodges in total wins (580) in program history.