Baseball wins close one at Riverside
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Saddleback | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 2 |
|
Riverside | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 1 |
The Saddleback baseball team hung on for an important Orange Empire Conference win on Thursday with a 3-1 victory at Riverside City College. The Gauchos have played seven straight games that have been decided by two runs or less.
Saddleback has been on the short side of a number of close games in recent weeks, but put one in the win column on Thursday at RCC. It didn't come easy, however, as it came down to the final out of the game in a pretentious situation. The Tigers had the winning run at the plate when Anthony Shew struck out David Schuknecht, one of the leading hitters on the Riverside squad.
Saddleback received another stellar performance from starting pitcher Evan Manarino, who improved to 6-1 on the season after pitching 7.2 innings on Thursday. Manarino give up just six hits while striking out five as the lone run scored against him was an un-earned run in the fifth inning.
Saddleback trailed 1-0 entering the sixth inning when they struck for two runs against the Tigers to take the narrow 2-1 lead. Josh Fuentes doubled to left-center field to drive in Jeff Butler with the tying run before advancing to third base on a wild pitch. The costly pitch would eventually come back to bite the boys from the 909 as Fuentes (pictured) would scored on the next pitch as Noah Graham flied out to center field. Saddleback would add another run in the seventh inning Casey Bennett scored on a Cody Schmitz double after doubling down the left-field line to start the inning.
Slate Miller finished 3-for-5 on the day as Saddleback finished with nine hits and a pair of walks on the afternoon.
Saddleback improved to 12-6 overall and 3-4 in Orange Empire Conference play with the win. It was the seventh straight game that has been decided by two runs or less. The Gauchos are 3-4 during that stretch, as every close game has come within conference play.
Saddleback will have the day off before traveling to Cypress College (13-6, 4-3) on Saturday. The first pitch is scheduled for 12:00 PM. The Gauchos defeated Cypress 5-3 on February 28.