Huntington Beach, CA - Golden West baseball (22-11, 9-5 OEC) took the series from the Saddleback Bobcats (20-12, 8-6 OEC) on Friday, 7-3.
The series between Golden West and Saddleback has been a wild ride to say the least. On Tuesday, the Bobcats visited Fred Hoover Field and pounced on the Rustlers pitching to win, 11-27. Golden West took the loss, turned it around and traveled to Saddleback College for the second game. With the Rustlers on the road, the bats jumped ahead in the third with four runs in the frame. Golden West extended their lead and held off Saddleback for the win, 7-3. The two teams were tied in the series with a win apiece as the series finale and rubber match took place in Fred Hoover Field at Golden West College.
On the first pitch Andrew Kirchner saw in the bottom of the second, he set 425 ft to dead center for a lead off solo blast, 1-0. Dylan Lina followed up on the very next pitch with a hard line drive to split the right center gap for a standup double. He would later score as a result of a double-play, 2-0. In the third frame, Kaleb Duncan walked with Zech Samayoa up to bat with two outs. The left fielder roped the ball down the left field line for a double and Duncan hustled all the way around the bases for the three-run edge, 3-0. Off of a crucial error, Saddleback came within one, 3-2.
Golden West was able to tally two insurance runs in the sixth after a costly Saddleback error. Jack Salmon singled up the middle for an RBI knock that scored Samayoa, 4-2. From a passed ball, Lina crossed home to extend the lead to three, 5-2. The Bobcats got a run back from a two-out RBI double in the bottom of the sixth inning, 5-3. Duncan singled up the middle and stole second, stole third and scored on a long sacrifice fly out to dead center from Ayden Garcia, 6-2. For the final run of the day for the Rustlers, Robert Castillo launched the ball off of the high left field wall for an RBI double, 7-2.
Duncan was a key component to the victory at the top of the lineup as he went 2-3 with two runs scored and two stolen bases. Samayoa followed behind with a 1-3 day, an RBI and a double. Kirchner, Salmon and Castillo all had a hit and RBI each. Alex Ramos pitched an incredible day with only one hit allowed and five strikeouts over 6.0 frames. JD Rodriguez took the rest of the load with 3.0 innings of relief as he fanned four batters. Golden West won the series as they took the final two meetings from Saddleback and now are tied with Santa Ana atop the Orange Empire Conference.
UP NEXT: The Rustlers will begin a new series on the road against Irvine Valley on Tuesday, April 16th. First pitch will be at 2pm.
