Cats claw-ber Dons in opener

The Saddleback baseball team opened a three-game series against Santa Ana College with a 9-3 win on Tuesday at Doug Fritz Field.  The Bobcats had a shutout heading to the ninth inning before giving up three runs with a commanding lead.

Saddleback has a mostly new roster in 2024, so most of the players don't remember the beating the Bobcats took in the state finals against Santa Ana last spring.  What remains on the roster earned a little redemption with a dominating win against the Dons on Tuesday. 

Saddleback opened the scoring in the bottom half of the second inning when Jacob Beauchaine blasted a homer to left-center field for a 1-0 advantage.  It was Beauchaine's fourth home run of the season and traveled some 391 feet.

Saddleback added a run in the third inning when Makani Tanaka led off the inning by getting hit by a pitch and was quickly moved over to third base on a single from J.C. Allen.  Tanaka then scored on a sacrifice fly from Rodrigo Barajas. 

Santa Ana threatened in the top half of the fourth inning when they had the bases loaded with two outs in the inning.  Starter Damon Anderson Wolf then got out of the jam when Allen made an acrobatic catch in foul grounds to preserve the lead.

Saddleback led 3-0 heading to the bottom of the seventh inning when they tacked on two runs to open up a comfortable lead.  The Bobcats capitalized on a handful of defensive mishaps from Santa Ana who had a hit-batter, passed ball and a defensive miscue in the inning. 

Saddleback piled on four more runs in the bottom half of the eighth inning during garbage time.  The Bobcats had four hits and a hit-batsman in the inning.  Allen capped off the Saddleback scoring with a single to score both Bryson Hoier and Andrew Nykoluk.  Allen finished the day 4-for-5 with four RBI.  He now has 110 RBI in his career at Saddleback, which is the fifth highest number all time.  Tanaka collected another two hits in raising his team-leading average to .415 for the season.  He has hit safely in all 28 games he has played this season.

As good as the Saddleback offense looked, the pitching was every bit as good.  Anderson Wolf pitched four innings before giving way to Dylan Blakey in the fifth inning.  Blakey pitched three innings of no-hit ball, striking out four Dons along the way.  Zachary Allegro pitched the final two innings for the Bobcats.

Saddleback improved to 18-10 overall and 6-4 in Orange Empire Conference play with the win.  The Bobcats into a tie for second place in conference play, one game back of Santa Ana (23-5-1, 7-3).    Saddleback and Santa Ana will resume the series at Santa Ana on Thursday.  The first pitch is scheduled for 2:00 PM in Santa Ana.