Gauchos hammer Dons to remain in hunt

The Saddleback baseball program picked up a 9-3 win at Santa Ana College on Tuesday in Santa Ana.  The Gauchos remain two games out of first place in the Orange Empire Conference.                          

Saddleback's offense was clicking on all cylinders, pounding out 12 hits against a Santa Ana program that outslugged the Gauchos in a marathon game last month (13-7).  The Gauchos led 3-0 after two innings with the big blow being a solo shot by Ryan Fitzpatrick (pictured) to lead off the second inning. 

Santa Ana would close the gap to 3-2 in the bottom of the fifth inning with a pair of runs, but Saddleback bounced right back by scoring once in the sixth and four more times in the seventh.   Three of the four runs were scored with two outs, with the final run coming on a balk.

Saddleback used a collective effort on the hill as Domnique Key started and went 4.2 innings before giving way to Jordan Scheftz.  He (Scheftz) would pitch two innings in picking up his first win of the year before John Sheaks came on for the final 2.1 innings of work.  Sheaks struck out four and surrendered no hits in silencing the Dons.

The win puts Saddleback at 14-6 overall and 4-4 in Orange Empire Conference play.  The Gauchos are tied for third place, two games back of Fullerton College and one game behind Orange Coast College.

Saddleback and Santa Ana will play again on Thursday when the Gauchos host the Dons.  The first pitch is scheduled for 2:00 PM at Doug Fritz Field.