Bobcats down Lasers to open series

The Saddleback baseball team opened a three-game series with Irvine Valley College with a 7-5 win at IVC on Tuesday.  With the win the Bobcats moved to within 2.5 games of first place Riverside City College in the Orange Empire Conference standings.

Saddleback had little room for error heading into the series with Irvine Valley.  The Bobcats trailed Riverside City College by three games in the standings with six games remaining.  

Saddleback came in as heavy favorites against IVC, who has yet to win a game in Orange Empire Conference play.  However, the Lasers always seem to bring their "A" game against Saddleback no matter the records entering the series.  Tuesday was no exception.  

Saddleback took a 3-0 lead in the top half of the first inning when they had four hits and a walk to start the game.  Jason Hefft drove home the first run of the game on a single to score Jacob Naso for a 1-0 lead.  Later in the inning Zachary Schwartzberg singled home both Hefft and Isaiah Morales for a 3-0 advantage.

Irvine Valley answered back, scoring three runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning.  The Lasers had three hits in the inning, sending a message that they were not going to go down quietly.

Saddleback took a 5-3 lead in the top half of the fourth inning when Hefft (pictured) homered to left field.  It was Hefft's first home run of the season.

Saddleback extended the lead to 7-4 in the top half of the sixth inning when they rapped out four hits against the Lasers.  The final blow was a single from J.C. Allen to score Michael Davinni for a three-run lead.

Saddleback started Arthu Liu on the mound and he pitched through the sixth inning in improving to 8-2 on the season.  Liu struck out two while spreading around seven hits before giving way to the bullpen.  Tyler Byrns took over and silenced the Laser bats for two innings before giving way to Blake Butcher in the ninth inning.  Butcher got himself into a jam when Irvine Valley had a pair of singles to put runners at the corners with two outs in the inning and the Bobcats leading 7-5.  He got out of the jam when Noah Madole flied out to right field to end the game, thus recording his third save of the season.

Saddleback finished with 17 hits in the game.  Morales and Allen both finished with four hits apiece while Hefft finished with three. 

Saddleback is now 25-9 overall and 11-5 in Orange Empire Conference play following the win.  The Bobcats moved within 2.5 games of Riverside City College after the Tigers were forced to move their scheduled game against Fullerton to Wednesday as a result of an incident on campus.  Saddleback and IVC will resume the series on Thursday when the Bobcats host the Lasers at 2:00 PM.