Baseball rallies past Ventura

The Saddleback baseball team rallied for a 13-5 win against Ventura College on Wednesday on the Saddleback diamond.  The Bobcats trailed in the seventh inning before exploding for nine runs over two innings in a win.

Saddleback opened the scoring in the second inning when Hayden Carlson hit a laser beam over the left field wall for a 1-0 lead.  It was Carlson's first home run of the season and the eighth for the team in just the fourth game of the year. 

Ventura battled back to take a 2-1 lead in the top half of the third inning when Saddleback committed a couple of miscues in the field.  The Pirates took advantage with a pair of hits in the inning.

Saddleback had a 4-2 lead heading into the seventh inning when Ventura struck for three runs in taking the lead.  The Pirates had three hits, a walk and hit batsman in the inning, scoring the go-ahead run on a two-run single from Matthew Ramirez in taking a 5-4 lead.

The lead would be short-lived, however, as Saddleback answered with three runs of its own in the bottom half of the inning.  With two outs and two runners on base, James Derflinger muscled a ball over the left field wall for his second home run of the season as the Bobcats grabbed back a 7-5 lead.

Saddleback then put the game away in the eighth inning when they scored six times in blowing the game wide open.  The Bobcats sent nine batters to the plate, collecting four hits in the innings while taking advantage of some pitching mistakes by the Pirates.  The final two runs of the inning came when Dmitri Susidko singled home Carlson, with a second run scoring (Derflinger) on an errant throw from the left fielder.

Saddleback started Jaden Sekhon on the mound and he pitched through the sixth inning before giving way to the bullpen.  Sekhon finished with 10 strikeouts and one walk, allowing just one earned-run in his first start of the season.  Sterling Rapp came on pitch in the seventh inning and was replaced by Sammy Cova with two outs in the inning.  Cova would pitch the final 2.1 innings in picking up his first win of the season.  Saddleback pitchers finished with 16 strikeouts on the afternoon, which was a season high through four games.

Saddleback is now 4-0 to start the season and has won eight straight games dating back to last season.  The Bobcats will attempt to win their fifth game of the season on Friday when they travel to Moorpark College.  The Bobcats and Raiders are scheduled to start at 1:00 PM in Moorpark.