Gauchos outscore Chargers in big win

The Saddleback baseball team moved to within a game of first place in the Orange Empire Conference standings with a 10-8 win over Cypress College on Thursday at Doug Fritz Field.  The Gauchos scored eight runs in the second inning and held on for the win.

Saddleback trailed 1-0 heading into the bottom of the second before exploding for their biggest inning of the season.  The Gauchos sent 12 batters to the plate, taking advantage of carelessness by the Charger defense.  Saddleback opened the inning with a walk to Jared Donahoe and followed with a single by Brandon Heinrich, who moved up to second when pitcher Henry Martinez committed an error.  Dallas Dey then grounded out to second base, allowing Donahoe to score the tying run. 

Ryan Fitzpatrick then walked to put runners and first and third before third baseman Willie Aguilar booted a ball hit by Robbie Biehl, allowing Heinrich to score an unearned run for a 2-1 lead.  Kyle Candalla later doubled to left field, scoring both Fitzpatrick and Andrew Wilson as the Gauchos extended the lead to 4-1. 

Cypress decided to make a pitching change to break up the momentum, but it backfired.  Pitcher Sebastian Lopez started his stint by plunking Kent Burckle to give the Gauchos runners at first and second base with two outs.  Saddleback made him pay as Luke Jarvis and tripled to right field to extend the lead to 6-1 and Donahoe followed with a second-straight triple to left field, opening up a 7-1 advantage.  A third error of the inning by Cypress shortstop Paul Gomez followed to make the lead 8-1, scoring Donahoe from third.

Cypress battled back in the top half of the third inning for five runs of their own, taking advantage of a fielding error by the Gauchos and five hits in the inning.  They chased starter Domnique Key from the game, but allowed the Gauchos to go to a bullpen that has been solid all season.  Saddleback settled down, allowing just three hits over the next 6.1 innings of play.  The star on the mound was Daniel Endsley, who completely shut down the Chargers over the final three innings.  Endsley gave up no hits while striking out three as only one Charger reached base.

Saddleback finished with six guys having two hits on the day, with both Donahoe and Fitzpatrick reaching base three times. 

The win puts Saddleback at 18-5 overall and 6-2 in Orange Empire Conference play.  The Gauchos moved within one game of first place Fullerton College, who dropped a game to Orange Coast College on Thursday.  Saddleback and Cypress will finish the three-game series on Saturday at Cypress.  The first