Faz delivers 11th inning heroics
| Final (11) | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Southwestern | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 8 | 1 |
|
Saddleback | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 10 | 1 |
The Saddleback baseball team improved to 6-1 on Tuesday with a 7-6 win in 11 innings over Southwestern College at Doug Fritz Field. Izaiah Faz delivered a walk-off win with a hit to right-center field.
Saddleback now has two walk-off wins in the past three games and it was Faz who delivered in the bottom half of the 11th inning. Saddleback loaded the bases with one out when the freshman from Westlake High School (TX) delivered what easily would have been an extra-base hit. It was the second hit of the game for Faz, who now has at least two hits in each of the past five games.
Saddleback and Southwestern both had their opportunities throughout the game. The Gauchos loaded the bases in the bottom half of the ninth inning but were unable to push across the winning run. Southwestern had multiple chances for big innings earlier in the game, but ran themselves out of five innings with players getting caught stealing in three separate innings, a base-runner interference call and another base-runner getting thrown out at home plate.
Saddleback pitchers struggled to find the plate for most of the day, walking 10 Jaguars on the day and hitting four more batters. The Gauchos finally found some rhythm in the later innings when Connor Wilford and Andrew Herbert came on to silence the Jaguar offense. The duo pitched the final 3.1 innings, surrendering just one hit and no walks as Herbert (1-0) picked up his first decision of the season.
Saddleback's offense continued to click. The Gauchos racked up double-digit hits for the sixth straight game and have now scored 78 runs in seven finishes. Saddleback had it's first back-to-back home runs of the season in the bottom half of the fourth inning when Antonio Vultaggio and Alex Zerfass went back-to-back to give the Gauchos a 4-1 lead. Saddleback was led by Faz, Zerfass, Tyler Chaffee and Dylan Smith, who all had two hits on the afternoon.
Saddleback has Wednesday off before hosting Cuesta College on Thursday thru Saturday. The Gauchos and Cougars are set to start the three-game set on Thursday at 5:00 PM at Doug Fritz Field.