Gaucho baseball tames Cats

The Saddleback baseball team had a big afternoon in Riverside on Tuesday, beating the Tigers 17-4.  The Gauchos scored 10 runs in the seventh inning to move into third place.

Saddleback bounced back from a loss on Saturday with a dominating performance, pummeling Riverside pitching while the Tiger defense melted down.  The Gauchos had 12 hits while Riverside's defense committed eight errors in the field.

The big inning was the seventh when the Gauchos sent 13 batters to the plate and took advantage of a number of miscues by the Tigers.  Saddleback had five hits in the inning while Riverside committed two errors, as seven of the 10 runs were unearned.  The last blow was a grand slam by Jared Donahoe, which upped the lead to 16-2.  It was the fourth home run of the season for Donahoe, who is third in the state in homers and fourth in the state in slugging percentage.

Nine different Gauchos had hits on the day as Saddleback tallied 11 unearned-runs on the Tigers.  Kyle Candalla, Brandon Heinrich and Robby Biehl all led the Gauchos with two hits apiece.

Meanwhile, Domnique Key (pictured) started on the mound after spending the opening part of the season as the closer.  Key was solid, pitching 5.2 innings and giving up two earned-runs in winning his first game of the year.  Key struck out five while walking none before giving way to the bullpen.  Cameron Aufderheide and Stephen Young pitched the final 3.1 innings as Gaucho pitchers struck out seven while walking just one for the afternoon.

Saddleback (11-3) improved to 1-1 in Orange Empire Conference play, moving them into a tie for third place with Riverside, Santa Ana and Irvine Valley.  The Gauchos and Tigers will play again on Thursday at Doug Fritz Field.  Game time is scheduled for 2:00 PM.