Chaffee has a grand day at Glendale

The Saddleback baseball team won its fifth straight game with a 7-6 victory at Glendale College on Thursday afternoon.  Tyler Chaffee hit a grand slam as the Gauchos held on for the win.

Saddleback led 1-0 heading into the third inning when they erupted for five runs to take a 6-0 lead.  Chaffee delivered the big blow, blasting a grand slam as the Gauchos mustered a two-out rally.  The first two batters of the inning were retired when Saddleback struck.  Carson Matthews started the rally with a double and was quickly brought home when Izaiah Faz followed with a double of his own.  Joseph Canty and Alex Zerfass followed with walks, loading the bases for Chaffee who proceeded to plant a ball over the wall for a 6-0 lead.  For Chaffee, it was his first home run of the season and now gives Saddleback 12 home runs on the season. 

Saddleback held a 6-2 lead heading into the sixth inning when they tacked on an insurance run after Danilo Tiotuico brought home Nick Lopez with a ground ball to second base.  It turned out to be a huge run for the Gauchos, who saw their lead shrink to 7-6 in the bottom of the eighth inning when Glendale scored four runs due to some wildness in the bullpen.  Connor Wilford was then called out of the pen to stop the bleeding, getting the final out of the eighth inning and surrendering the Vaqueros in order in the ninth inning to secure the win.

Matt Comnos started on the mound and pitched through the fifth inning in improving to 3-0 on the season.  Wilford was credited with his second save of the year.

Saddleback (13-3) has the weekend off before heading into Orange Empire Conference play next week.  The Gauchos open OEC play with a three-game series against Riverside City College.  Saddleback hosts RCC on Tuesday (2:00 PM) and Saturday (12:0 PM) and will travel to RCC on Thursday (2:00 PM).