Cats swat bees in instant classic

The Saddleback baseball team closed out the regular season with a 14-13 win over Fullerton College on Friday at Saddleback.  The Bobcats and Hornets battled for 4:45 before Saddleback won in 11 innings.

Saddleback and Fullerton have had some classics over the years, but they'd be hard-pressed to top what happened in meeting 142 of the lifetime series.  The two teams battled for close to five hours, with Saddleback rallying from a seven-run deficit to pull out a 14-13 win.

The two teams combined to play 42 players in a game that had 459 total pitches.  Fullerton had 11 pitchers enter the game and the two pitching staffs combined for 20 walks and eight hit-batsmen. 

In the end it was James Derflinger's single through the left side of the infield to score Austin Palmares with the 27^th run of the game that was the difference.  Derflinger was one of seven Bobcats to reach base at least four times, finishing 2-for-5 with a pair of walks.  Hayden Carlson reached base five times, drawing four walks while finishing 1-for-3 at the plate.  Jacob Beauchaine led the team with four hits, finishing 4-for-7 with three runs-scored, three RBI and his team-leading seventh home run of the season.  Andreas Nilsen was unfortunate enough to get hit by pitches in three consecutive at-bats, finishing 1-for-2 with three bruises.  Austin Palmares had three hits in six at-bats while getting hit by a pitch.  Joey Doskocil finished 2-for-4 with two walks.  Rodrigo Barajas was 3-for-6 with a walk. 

Saddleback scored runs in six consecutive innings at one point in rallying from the dead.  The Bobcats finally tied the game in the bottom half of the ninth inning when Austin Palmares singled with the bases loaded to score both Bryson Hoier and Jake Tyler.  It was one of seven times in the game where the Bobcats had the bases loaded.  The only thing keeping Saddleback from scoring a handful of more runs was the fact that they left 17 runners on base throughout the game. 

Saddleback started Jace Barajas on the mound and he left after pitching three innings.  He was followed by Ryan Kepple, Evin Hollandsworth, Jake Porter, Gabriel Fender and Andrew Padova.  Fender and Padova were lights out over the final four innings, holding the Hornets hitless while striking out four.  Padova picked up the win to improve to 2-0 for the season. 

Saddleback's win put them at 24-16 overall and 10-11 in Orange Empire Conference play to finish the regular season.  The Bobcats will find out their playoff fate over the weekend.