Gauchos roll a seven in beating Orange Coast

The Saddleback softball team won its fifth game in the past six tries with an 11-2 win over Orange Coast College on Wednesday afternoon at "The Corral" on the Saddleback campus.  The Gauchos exploded for seven runs in the second inning in cruising past the Pirates.

Saddleback dropped a game to end the week last week and wanted to make a statement that it wasn't going to become a trend.  After falling behind early, the Gauchos quickly bounced back and made their point…scoring 11 runs over the next three innings in dropping the Pirates to 1-11 on the season.

Saddleback fell behind 1-0 in the top of the second inning as Orange Coast tied together three hits and took advantage of a wild pitch.  It would be short-lived for the Pirates, however, as Saddleback batted around the lineup in the bottom half of the inning.  After a strikeout to start the inning, the next seven batters all reached base as the Gauchos pounded out five singles, a double and a walk in scoring seven times.   The big hit was a double by McRae Cayton (pictured) with the bases loaded, scoring Tori Duquette and Kelsey Hodge. 

Reina Chandler and Hodge both finished with three hits apiece as Saddleback hammered out 13 hits over four innings in winning by the mercy rule.  The Gauchos also had five batters reach on a walk and two more by error as Orange Coast finally gave the hook to starting pitcher Crystal Ornelas after three innings of work. 

Saddleback improved to 7-4 on the season and 2-2 in Orange Empire Conference play with the win.  The Gauchos will host perennial power Cypress College (7-3) on Friday afternoon.  First pitch is scheduled for 2:00 PM.