Cats still scratchin'
Saddleback to play Desert on Monday in deciding game
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 8 | 1 |
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0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 10 | 0 |
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
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0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 2 |
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0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 |
The Saddleback baseball team split two games on Sunday at the 3C2A Southern California Regional Tournament at College of the Desert. The Bobcats will play the host college tomorrow in trying to advance to second round of the playoffs.
Saddleback lost a cliffhanger in the opener when College of the Desert scored twice in the bottom half of the ninth inning to beat the Bobcats, 7-6. It made all three teams in the regional 1-1 and put Saddleback against Cerritos later in the afternoon in an elimination game.
Saddleback opened the scoring when Cole Strane advanced Carter Enoch across home plate with a groundout for a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning. The score remained the same until the fourth inning when Strane had a single to give Saddleback a two-run advantage.
The game was halted in the bottom half of the inning after Saddleback challenged that a Cerritos runner had left third base early on a potential sacrifice fly by the Falcons. The runner was deemed out by the umpiring crew, but the call sparked controversy to a point where the Falcons protested the game. The protest was eventually overturned in the sixth inning.
Saddleback tacked on two more runs in the top half of the eighth inning when Matthew Henning drove in a pair of runners with a bloop single. It would be all the Bobcats would need as Cerritos failed to score on a pitching staff that was on its "A" game for the entire game.
Brennan Bauer started and pitched 6.2 innings before giving way to the bullpen. Jack Gallison came on in relief before getting into some trouble in the bottom half of the ninth inning. Ryan Rios was called upon in the ninth inning to get the final out with the bases loaded to preserve the win.
Strane ended up as the offensive star of the game, finishing 3-for-4 with one run-scored and two RBI. Henning also reached base three times, finishing 2-for-4 with a walk and two RBI.
Saddleback is now 26-17 overall following the two games on Sunday. The Bobcats will play Desert on Monday in a winner-take-all game starting at 1:00 PM. Saddleback will be the home game despite the game being played at College of the Desert.
GAME NOTE: The 4-0 win was the third shutout of the season for the Saddleback pitching staff