Bobcats seeded 6th, will face Santiago Canyon

The Saddleback softball team earned the No. 6 seed for the Orange Empire Conference Tournament and will travel to Santiago Canyon College for a quarterfinal game on Friday.  With a win the Bobcats would advance to the semifinals and face the winner of Santa Ana College and Golden West College on Monday.

Saddleback finished the regular schedule 10-21 overall and 6-15 in Orange Empire Conference play.  Despite finishing in sixth place in the standings, the Bobcats played some of their best softball down the stretch when they defeated both Santiago Canyon and top-seeded Cypress College in a five-day stretch.  Saddleback's best performance of the year came a week ago against Santiago Canyon when they knocked the Hawks out of first place with a 8-0 mercy rule win in five innings.  In that game, Ehva Cifuentes-Zombulovic finished 3-for-4 with five RBI, including a walk-off double with the bases loaded.

Saddleback finished 1-2 against Santiago Canyon this season, getting outscored 15-11.  The Bobcats are looking for a performance like last Friday's when they held the Hawks to five hits while collecting eight hits and five walks of their own on offense. 

Cifuentes-Zombulovic (pictured left) has been a force for most of the season and should be considered a strong candidate for player-of-the-year in the Orange Empire Conference (OEC).  She's currently batting .398 for the season, is second in the conference with nine home runs and fourth in the OEC with 35 RBI.  Cifuentes-Zombulovic's .777 slugging percentage is second to only Cypress' Emily Rush, who has played in eight more games.

Another having a big season is Anne Thibert, who leads the team with a .421 average.  Thibert (pictured center) is second in the conference in batting average and third in steals while making just three errors in the field all season.

Saddleback is led on the hill by Katie Schmidt, who finished the regular schedule 10-21 with a 3.86 ERA.  Despite a rough outing against Fullerton to close out the regular schedule, Schmidt (pictured right) entered the contest against Fullerton with a 4-4 record and a 2.11 ERA in her previous eight outings. 

Saddleback and Santiago Canyon are scheduled to start at 2:00 PM on Friday in Orange.