Baseball gets out brooms against Santa Ana

The Saddleback baseball team completed a three-game sweep of Santa Ana College on Saturday with a 12-1 win in Santa Ana.  The Gauchos now have a one game lead in the standings with nine games remaining.

Saddleback hasn't won an Orange Empire Conference title since 1998 and entered the series 46 games below .500 (46-92-1) lifetime against Santa Ana.  Although the second record could take a while to even out, the first slump is starting to look within reach after sweeping past the Dons on Saturday.

Saddleback opened the scoring by putting four runs on the board in the top of the third inning.  The Gauchos used four hits, one defensive error and a wild pitch to put the Dons in a big hole.   After Saddleback scored the opening run on an error, Kyle Candalla doubled to left field to score Robbie Biehl for a 2-0 lead.  Kent Burckle followed with a single to right field, scoring Dallas Dey.  Luke Jarvis then widened the gap to 4-0 with a sacrifice fly to center and the Gauchos were off and running.

Saddleback scored one more in the fourth before exploding for four more runs in the fifth to expand the lead to 9-0.  It was a similar formula, grinding out four hits as Santa Ana committed another error, plunked a batter and walked another.  Jarvis again finished the scoring with a single to right field, which was misplayed by the right fielder and allowed the Gauchos to score two runs. 

Saddleback added injury to insult in the sixth inning when Andrew Wilson hit a solo home run, increasing the lead to 10-0 and sending most of the fans to the exits.

Meanwhile, the pitching was in synch.  Jackson Rees started the game and pitched seven impressive innings.  Rees (pictured) allowed one unearned run in the sixth inning but faced only five batters over the minimum in improving to 4-1 on the season.  Cameron Aufderheide pitched the eighth inning before giving way to Michael Carr in the ninth with the game well in hand. 

Saddleback (22-5, 10-2) now has a one game lead on Fullerton College in the Orange Empire Conference standings with nine games remaining in conference play.  The Gauchos will open a three-game series against two-time, defending state champion Orange Coast College (15-12, 6-6) on Tuesday at Doug Fritz Field.  The first pitch is scheduled for 2:00 PM.