Art with a masterpiece

The Saddleback baseball team climbed into a tie for first place in the Orange Empire Conference with a 5-2 win against Riverside City College on Tuesday at Doug Fritz Field.  Arthur Liu threw a masterpiece in picking up his ninth win of the season.

Saddleback trailed Riverside City by four games in the standings just 10 days ago, but the two teams are now even with two games remaining in the regular season after the win on Tuesday.  The Bobcats never trailed in the game as Arthur Liu suffocated the RCC offense.  Liu pitched through the sixth inning, surrendering just three hits in improving to 9-2 on the season.  He then gave way to the bullpen duo of Tyler Byrns and Blake Butcher, who brought the ship into the dock.  Butcher pitched a flawless ninth inning in picking up his fourth save of the year.

Saddleback took a 3-0 lead in the bottom half of the first inning when they had three hits and took advantage of a pair of walks from Riverside City starter Hayden Coon.  The two walks and a single from Michael Davinni loaded the bases with one out in the inning when J.C. Allen grounded out to drive in the first run of the game.  The Bobcats followed with singles from Zachary Schwartzberg and Jack Collins to give Saddleback a three-run advantage.

Saddleback added two insurance runs in the bottom half of the sixth inning.  The big blow was a two-out double down the left field line from Isaiah Morales to give the Bobcats a 5-0 lead. 

Saddleback outhit Riverside City 11-4 for the game.  Makani Tanaka led the Bobcats with three hits while Morales, Schwartzberg and Collins all had two hits apiece.

Saddleback is now 28-9 overall and 14-5 in Orange Empire Conference play following the win.  The Bobcats resume the series at Riverside City on Thursday at 2:00 PM.