Bobcats rally to stun Dons

The Saddleback baseball team rallied from a 6-run deficit to defeat Santa Ana College, 9-8, on Thursday in Santa Ana.  The Bobcats moved into a tie for first place in the Orange Empire Conference (OEC) with the win.

Saddleback came into the week in a tie for third place, facing the top-ranked team in the state.  The Bobcats are now in a four-way tie for first place after rallying back from a big deficit.

Santa Ana scored in each of the first four innings in taking an 8-2 lead.  The Dons scored three times in both the first and third innings as the Bobcats couldn't keep them off the basepaths. 

Saddleback then rallied, scoring four times in the top half of the fifth inning to cut the deficit to two.  Jake Tyler (pictured) led off the inning with a solo home run to left field to inject some energy into the bench.  J.C. Allen then doubled home Ben Castelli for the second run of the inning after Santa Ana walked Castelli and advanced him to second base on a wild pitch.  Later in the inning the Dons had another miscue when Jacob Beauchaine reached on an error from the left-fielder, allowing Allen to score.  Rodrigo Barajas capped off the scoring with a sacrifice fly to score Beauchaine.

Saddleback was down 8-6 heading to the seventh inning when they scored a pair of runs to tie the game.  The Santa Ana pitching staff helped out, walking the first two batters of the inning and hitting a batter to load the bases.  The Dons then committed another error in the field, allowing both Makani Tanaka and Allen to cross home plate to tie the game.

Santa Ana looked ready to right the ship in the bottom half of the eighth inning when the first two batters reached base with singles.  Saddleback then made a pitching change, putting Ryan Seymour into the game after Isaac Rodriguez had kept the game alive with 3+ innings of solid work.  Seymour proceeded to get a strikeout, a fielder's choice and a fly out to right field to keep the tie-game intact.

Saddleback came to the plate in the ninth inning, and it looked like it was going to be a quick inning with the first two batters striking out.  The Bobcats then made the best of the situation as Barajas started the rally with a single through the right side of the infield and quickly moved over to second base on a wild pitch.  Jason Wright then walked before Jacob Hudson delivered what would end up being the game-winning hit through the right side of the infield that was misplayed by the right fielder. 

Saddleback then went to Dylan Blakey in the bottom half of the ninth inning, trying to preserve the lead and complete the comeback victory.  After an opening walk, Blakey silenced the Santa Ana bats with a groundout and two strikeouts.

Saddleback improved to 19-10 overall and 7-4 in OEC play with the win.  The Bobcats are now in a four-way tie with Santa Ana, Orange Coast College and Golden West College in the conference standings following the win.  Saddleback and Santa Ana will conclude the series on Saturday at Saddleback at 12:00 PM.