Gauchos bounce back for win at Golden West

The Saddleback baseball team bounced back from a disappointing loss to Golden West on Thursday with a 6-1 win on Saturday.  The Gauchos are now sitting in third place in the Orange Empire Conference with eight games to play.

Saddleback was steaming mad after committing five errors in an ugly 6-5 loss in 12 innings to the Rustlers on Thursday.  The Gauchos bounced back with four runs in the seventh inning on Saturday to set the record straight, committing just one boot in the field.

Saddleback and Golden West both traded runs in the fifth inning as both Gaucho starter Tyler Brashears and Rustler starter Jason Deitrich were in solid command of the game in the early innings.  Saddleback then exploded for four runs in the seventh inning as Brandon Cody hit his fourth home run of the season to lead off the inning and later when Cody Schmitz tripled and the Gauchos took advantage of a Golden West error to return the favor from two days earlier.

Brashears pitched seven strong innings, surrendering just one unearned run while striking out six and improving to 5-2 on the season.  The lone run for the Rustlers came on an error in the fifth inning.

Cody (pictured) now leads the conference in home runs and is in eighth place in the state.  He also leads the Gauchos with a .347 average and seven triples (2^nd in state).

Saddleback moved into a tie for third place in the Orange Empire Conference standings with the win.  The Gauchos trail Orange Coast by one game and Fullerton by four games.

Saddleback (19-9, 7-6) will play again on Tuesday when they travel to Santa Ana (18-9, 5-8).  First pitch is scheduled for 2:00 PM.