Gauchos blast Renegades in CV final

The Saddleback baseball team finished its three-day tour of the Central Valley with a 9-2 win at Bakersfield College on Thursday.  The Gauchos hammered out 15 hits while holding the Renegades in check.

Saddleback scraped across solo runs in the third, fifth and sixth innings to take a 3-0 lead.  The first two runs of the game came unearned as Bakersfield committed a couple of mishaps in the field and the Gauchos took advantage.  The third came on a single by Adam Gordon in the sixth inning, scoring Tyler Clark.

Bakersfield battled back with two runs in the bottom half of the sixth as Michael Carr got into his first and only jam of the game.  Carr (pictured) would get replaced by Hunter Johnson in the inning, who quickly walked a batter and was replaced by Devin Sutorius.  The sophomore from Capistrano Valley Christian quickly stopped the bleeding, striking out the next two batters to preserve a 3-2 lead.

Saddleback went right back to work, scoring three times in the seventh to extend the lead to 6-2.  Gordon again delivered after another boot in the field by Bakersfield, driving home Brett Auerbach for the final run of the inning.

Gordon finished 3-for-4 with two RBI on the afternoon.  He was joined by Clark and Brett O'Toole, who also had three hits on the day as Saddleback rapped out 15 hits.  Bakersfield compounded their pitching problems by committing six defensive errors and giving up five unearned runs.

Saddleback will resume Orange Empire Conference play on Tuesday when it starts a three-game series at Riverside City College.  Game time on Tuesday is set for 2:00 PM.  The Gauchos will then host the Tigers on Thursday at 2:00 PM and finish the series at RCC on Saturday at 12:00 PM.