King crowns the Lasers in 10th

The Saddleback baseball team picked up an exciting win on Tuesday with a 7-4 victory over Irvine Valley College in 10 innings.  Alex King belted a three-run homer in the bottom of the 10^th inning as the Gauchos moved into a tie for third place.

Saddleback kept battling from behind the entire afternoon and never had the lead until the final swing of the day.  Despite outhitting the Lasers 13-4 on the afternoon, IVC made the best of every opportunity in making Saddleback work for the win.

The Gauchos trailed 3-1 heading into the bottom of the third inning when Casey Worden tied things up with one swing of the bat with a homer to left field.  The game would remain that way until the eighth inning when IVC took a one-run lead on a solo home run by Brett Hamilton.  The Gauchos answered in the bottom half of the inning when King singled through the right side of the infield to score Worden and tie the game at 4-4.

The teams moved to extra innings, which would be the third inning of work for reliever Eric Neeley.  He would treat the Lasers the same way in the 10^th as he did the two previous innings, sending them down in order in retiring nine straight batters.

With one out in the bottom half of the inning Worden was hit by a pitch and Cole Stanton singled to center field, putting two runners on base and only needing a single to win the game.  King delivered a  bomb to right field, sending the Saddleback fans home with a smile on their faces.

Saddleback improved to 13-5 overall and 3-3 in Orange Empire Conference play with the win.  The Gauchos are now one game back of both Cypress and Fullerton in the OEC standings in a season where the bottom and top teams are separated by just two games.

Saddleback will play again on Thursday when it travels to Orange Coast to take on the Pirates.  Game time is scheduled for 2:00 PM.