Bobcats take lead in regional finals

The Saddleback softball team opened up the best-of-three series with College of the Canyons with a 9-3 victory on Friday night at Bobcats Field.   The Bobcats are one win away from qualifying for the 3C2A State Tournament. 

Saddleback is trying to do something that hasn't been done since 1999.  The Bobcats are now one win away from making the state tournament after a 9-3 win in the opening game of the regional finals.

Saddleback jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first three innings as the Bobcats came ready to play.  Saddleback scored its first two runs in the bottom half of the second inning.  Ehva Cifuentes-Zombulovic led off the inning with a single and was brought home to score when Colette Howren doubled to left field for the opening run of the game.  Later in the inning the Bobcats capitalized on a Canyons error in grabbing the early 2-0 advantage.

One inning later, Millie Maher did her thing when starting the inning with a bunt single and quickly stealing second base.  Mikayla Mendoza would then walk before the Bobcats pulled off a double-steal to put two runners in scoring position.  Ka'ui Garcia made the Cougars pay a price when she tripled to the gap in left-center field for a 4-0 lead.  One batter later she would score on a sacrifice fly and the Bobcats had a sizeable lead heading to the fourth inning.

Canyons battled back, scoring three times in the top half of the fourth inning to make it a game.  The Cougars had four of their seven hits in the inning in showing why they had upset Cerritos College in the second round of the tournament a week earlier. 

Saddleback, however, settled down and handled the situation with poise.  They put solid defense behind starting pitcher Colette Howren, shutting down the Canyons attack the rest of the way.  The Cougars had just two hits from that point forward as Howren improved to 20-6 for the season.

Saddleback added four insurance runs in the bottom half of the fifth inning. The Bobcats had three straight singles from Tessa Arciniega, Lehua Garcia and Lola Winningham in upping the lead to 6-3.  They then got some help from the Canyons defense when Maher hit a grounder to the shortstop, who hesitated with the ball, allowing all of the runners to advance.  Mikayla Mendoza would then walk to put the Bobcats up 8-3 before the final run scored on a fielder's choice off the bat of Garcia.

Howren led on both sides of the ball.  She finished with five strikeouts on the mound while reaching base four times on offense.  Saddleback wrapped out 10 hits while getting five free passes with walks.  The top five batters in the lineup finished 6-for-14 with five walks and six RBI.

Saddleback is now 31-13 following the win.  The Bobcats and Cougars resume the series on Saturday at 2:00 PM at Bobcats Field.  A win by Saddleback would put Saddleback in the state tournament next week.  A win by Canyons would force a third and deciding game to follow.