Gauchos celebrate with series walk-off

The Saddleback baseball team picked up one of its more exciting wins of the season with a 4-3 victory over Riverside City College on Saturday afternoon at Doug Fritz Field.  The Gauchos struck for two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning in pulling out the series win.

Saddleback and Riverside battled for a third straight game in what turned out to be an exciting three-game set to start Orange Empire Conference play.  For a third straight game it came down to the final at-bats, with the Gauchos celebrating for a second time.

Riverside City led 3-2 heading to the bottom of the ninth inning behind the solid right arm of starter Marques Johnson.  The hard-throwing righty kept the Saddleback lineup off balance for most of the day, pitching the Tigers to a 3-2 lead through seven innings.  Riverside then went to the bullpen in the eighth inning and brought in Josiah Torres, who entered the contest with a perfect 0.00 ERA on the season.  He made quick work of the Gaucho lineup in the eighth inning and looked as if he would cruise through the ninth when things started to deteriorate for the Tigers.

After retiring the first batter of the inning, Tyler Chaffee swung and missed at a third strike, but managed to get to first base after the Riverside catcher couldn't find the ball in the dirt and made a late throw down to first base.  Joseph Canty then walked and Saddleback suddenly had life with runners at first and second base with one out in the inning. 

Torres managed to strike out Antonio Vultaggio for the second out of the inning, putting Riverside one out away from taking the best-of-three series.  He then had a wild pitch to move the runners over, thus adding more pressure to the moment by putting the potential winning run at second base.  The moment got the best of him, as he proceeded to walk Dylan Smith to load the bases. 

With the bases loaded and two outs, Tyler Declusin entered the box with a chance to be the hero.  He hit a hard ball to third base which was misplayed by Mathew Ivancich.   After richocheting off his glove, the ball trickled into left field, allowing both Chaffee and Canty to score for the 4-3 win.

Saddleback received a solid performance on the mound from Scott Armstrong (pictured), who pitched through the sixth inning before giving way to Connor Wilford.  The righty from San Clemente was stunning the rest of the way, getting out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh inning and silencing the Tiger bats over the final two innings.  Wilford improved to 2-0 on the season with the win, and now has a 1.65 ERA for the year. 

Saddleback is now 15-4 overall and 2-1 in Orange Empire Conference play.  The Gauchos are tied for second place in the OEC, one game back of Cypress College.  Saddleback and Cypress start a three-game series next week with a game on Monday at Cypress (2:30 PM).  The Gauchos then return home to host the Chargers on Thursday (2:00 PM) before heading back to Cypress on Saturday for the series finale (12:00 PM).