Cats show teeth in opening series

The Saddleback baseball team advanced to the second round of the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) Southern California Regional Tournament by sweeping past Los Angeles Valley College on Saturday at Doug Fritz Field.  The Bobcats won 16-0 on Saturday in outscoring the Monarchs 25-1 over two days.

Saddleback received an outstanding performance on the mound from Ryan Farmer.  The righty pitched through the seventh inning before leaving with a 3-0 lead.  Farmer gave up just three hits and one walk while striking out five in improving to 8-2 on the season.  The Bobcats then turned to Joshua Meekins and Arthur Liu on the mound, who steered Saddleback across the finish line with a big lead to play with. 

Saddleback led 3-0 heading to the top of the eighth inning when they tacked on three runs to make it a 6-0 lead.  The Bobcats then had a crazy finish in the ninth inning when they scored 10 times in the final inning to take a 16-0 lead.  Saddleback had six doubles and three home runs in the inning, scoring seven unearned runs after a costly defensive miscue from the Monarchs with two outs in the inning.  The biggest eruption from the crowd came when Nick Dietsch, Michael Davinni and Moonhyeon Eom went back-to-back-to-back with balls over the left field wall to finish off the scoring.

Tyler DeClusin had another big day on offense for Saddleback, finishing 4-for-5 with two runs-scored and one RBI in the game.  DeClusin finished the series 7-for-9 with four runs-scored and four RBI.  Saddleback had three others with three hits as Luc Stuka (pictured) and Michael Davinni were both 3-for-5 and Cole Koniarsky finished 3-for-4. 

Saddleback outscored Los Angeles Valley 25-1 in the series, outhitting the Monarchs 31-7.   The Bobcats finished with 12 extra-base hits in  the game.  

Saddleback is now 34-8 on the season and has won 15 straight games.  The Bobcats are within two wins of tying the program record for most wins in a row at 17 (2002, 1997). 

Saddleback will face the winner of Long Beach City College and College of the Desert, who were playing a third game on Saturday afternoon after splitting the first two games of their  series. The Bobcats will host a three-game series, starting on Friday at 2:00 PM.  Saturday's game is scheduled to start at 1:00 PM and a Sunday game, if necessary, would start at 12:00 PM. 

NOTES: Saddleback is now 30-0 for the season when they lead at the completion of the seventh inning.  The 16-0 win was the second shutout in the past five games.  The 34 wins for the program is the most since winning 34 in 2003, and is tied for fourth all-time in program history.  

#feartheclowder