Wood lifts Bobcats past the Bees

The Saddleback baseball team won its third straight game with an 8-4 win against the Fullerton Hornets on Thursday at Doug Fritz Field.  Nation Wood provided the big blow with his third home run of the season.

Saddleback closed out the home season on a high note, rallying from an early deficit.  The Bobcats fell behind 3-0 in the opening inning before surging past the Hornets in improving to 12-14 on the season.

Saddleback scored twice in the bottom half of the second inning and three more times in the third inning in taking a 5-4 lead.  Wood put the Bobcats on top with a 394-foot homer to right center field after David Le Bioda had doubled to right-center field to score Johnathan Behm to tie the game at 3-3.

Saddleback's pitching staff was excellent throughout.  The Bobcats started Matt Comnos, who went five innings in picking up his second win of the season.  After a hard-luck first inning where the Hornets scored three unearned runs, Comnos settled in nicely and silenced the Fullerton bats while the offense got into gear.  He finished with nine strikeouts and no walks in improving to 2-0.  Scott Armstrong came into to relieve Comnos in the sixth inning and was effective over the final four innings in picking up his first save of the season.  Armstrong struck out six while spreading around two hits as the Saddleback pitchers combined for 15 strikeouts and no walks. 

Saddleback's offense finished with 12 hits on the afternoon as every player in the starting lineup had at least one hit.  Wood finished 2-for-4 with three RBI and two runs scored while Brent Riddle and David Le Bioda both had two hits apiece.

Saddleback closes out the 2021 schedule with a double-header at Fullerton on Friday.  The first pitch is scheduled for 12:00 PM.