Cats show heart and Seoul in win

The Saddleback baseball team rallied for a 7-4 win against Santa Ana College on Thursday at Doug Fritz Field.  The Bobcats moved into a tie for first place with the win.

Saddleback was coming off a hard-fought, 6-5 loss in the series opener to Santa Ana on Tuesday and had to battle from behind and dig deep in order to even the series.  The Bobcats trailed three different times in the game, and finally broke through in the seventh inning with five runs to turn back the Dons.

Saddleback looked a bit lethargic in the early innings, trailing 2-1 with Santa Ana batting in the top of fourth inning.  The Bobcats received a jolt of energy from Moonhyeon Eom, who made a sensational catch in foul territory for the final out of the inning.  The freshman from Seoul, South Korea, then followed up his defensive gem by delivering a key sacrifice fly in the bottom half of the inning to tie the game.

Eom (pictured) was part of a lineup that had eight players hit safely in the game.  He came up with another big at-bat in the seventh inning when he singled to left field and Zachary Schwartzberg scored after the left fielder for Santa Ana misplayed the ball.  The hit gave Saddleback a 6-4 lead and seemed to take the wind out of the sails of the Dons.  Later in the inning, Jacob Naso singled home Tyler DeClusin for the fifth run of the inning and a 7-4 advantage.

Saddleback then turned to the bullpen combination of Joshua Meekins and Arthur Liu, who have been lethal on opposing batters for most of the season.  Both men did their job as Meekins retired the side in order in the eighth inning and Liu came on in the ninth inning to earn his fifth save of the season.

Saddleback is now 20-8 overall and 7-4 in Orange Empire Conference play.  The Bobcats are in a three-way tie for first place with Fullerton and Riverside City, one game in front of both Santa Ana and Cypress.  The Bobcats and Dons will conclude the three-game set on Saturday at Saddleback at 12:00 PM.