Barker bigger than Wolverine bite

The Saddleback baseball team battled back from a 3-0 deficit on Saturday in beating San Bernardino Valley College 11-3 to sweep the best-of-three playoff series with the Wolverines.  Brett Barker had five RBI, including a three-run homer as the Gauchos scored 11 straight runs in advancing to the second round of the Southern California Regional Tournament

Saddleback (25-13) trailed 3-0 through 4.5 innings before battling back as San Bernardino Valley (23-15) scored one run in the first inning and two more in the fourth.  The big blow during the comeback was a three-run homer by Barker, who took SBVC starter Sam Fitzgerald over the right field wall to change the tone of the game. 

The Gauchos then scored two runs in the sixth inning to take the lead and six more in the seventh inning as the San Bernardino Valley pitching staff was running on empty.  Barker delivered the final blow in the seventh with a run-scoring double for his fourth RBI of the game.  He finished the weekend 5-for-10 with seven RBI as the Gauchos rattled Wolverine pitching for 29 runs and 32 hits over two days.  Another big blow was a two-run double by Jack Kaloogian in the six-run inning to give Saddleback an 8-3 lead.

Saddleback started Domnique Key on the mound and the freshman pitched through the seventh inning in improving to 7-2 on the season.  Key struck out three while giving up six hits and no walks before leaving with an eight run lead.  John Sheaks and Eric Neeley closed out the Wolverines over the final two innings.

Saddleback advances to the second round of the playoffs next week in a best-of-three series at Golden West College starting Friday.  Keep it tuned to saddlebackgauchos.com for all the latest news.