Cats claw back into first

The Saddleback baseball team won its fourth straight series in Orange Empire Conference (OEC) play with a 5-4 win against Santa Ana College on Saturday at Doug Fritz Field.  The Bobcats rallied for a 2-1 win in the series and are now tied for first place in the OEC.

Saddleback and Santa Ana battled for three straight games.  The Dons battled back from a deficit in the opener on Tuesday and the Bobcats returned the favor on both Thursday and Saturday with come-from-behind wins.

Santa Ana led 3-0 on Saturday heading to the bottom of the fourth inning when the Saddleback bats finally came alive.  The Bobcats cut the deficit to 3-2 when they had four hits in the fourth.  The big hits were back-to-back doubles from Johnathan Behm and Michael Davinni with two outs in the inning.

Saddleback kept the momentum going in the bottom half of the fifth inning when they had five more hits.  Cole Koniarsky tied the game at 3-3 when he grounded out to third base, scoring Tyler DeClusin to even up the game.  The Bobcats took the lead with the next batter when Luc Stuka (pictured) flared a hit into left-center field to score both Jordan Dissin and Jacob Naso for a 5-3 lead.

Saddleback had 14 hits on the day as Behm led the way with a 3-for-4 performance.  Dissin, Stuka, Davinni and DeClusin all had four hits of their own.

Saddleback had great pitching performances all around as the staff used a combination of four pitchers in the final game of a hard-fought series.  Ryan Cullinane pitched into the fourth inning and was finally lifted and replaced by Jacob Juarez, who picked up his second win of the season after surrendering just one hit while striking out three in 2.1 innings of work.  The Bobcats then turned the ball over to Joshua Meekins and Arthur Liu over the final three innings and the lethal duo worked their magic in protecting the lead.  Liu got himself into a bit of a jam in the ninth inning before getting out of a hole and picking up his sixth save of the season.

Saddleback is now 21-8 overall and 8-4 in Orange Empire Conference play.  The Bobcats are tied with Riverside City College atop the OEC standings with nine games remaining in conference play.  Saddleback opens a three-game set with inter-district rival Irvine Valley College (14-15, 3-9) on Tuesday at Doug Fritz Field.  The Bobcats and Lasers are scheduled to start at 2:00 PM.