Sammy silences the Tigers

The Saddleback baseball team evened the series with Riverside City College with a 5-0 win at RCC on Friday in Riverside.  Sammy Cova pitched a gem as the Bobcats tied the series before heading back home for the rubber game on Saturday.

Cova was scintillating, pitching the first complete game for Saddleback since 2018 when Tanner Brubaker shut down Orange Coast College in an 8-1 win.  Cova struck out 10 Riverside City sluggers while spreading around six hits and improving to 3-2 on the season.

Saddleback and Riverside City were scoreless heading into the fourth inning when the Bobcats took the lead.  Robert Gray led off the inning with a triple before Joey Doskocil brought him home with an easy groundout to second base in what would eventually be the winning run of the game.

Saddleback added two more runs in the top half of the sixth inning, and once again it was Gray and Doskocil in the middle of the action.  After Jacob Beauchaine singled and Bryson Hoier walked to start the inning, Gray then singled down the left field line to drive home Beauchaine with the second run of the game.  Doskocil then drove home Hoier with another groundout and the Cats had a 3-0 advantage.

Saddleback tacked on insurance runs in the seventh and eighth innings to put the game out of reach.  Rodrigo Barajas hammered his fifth home run of the season in the top half of the seventh inning with a blast to right field.  Doskocil then scored a run in the top half of the eighth inning when he doubled to left field before eventually coming around to score on a wild pitch. 

Gray was joined by Dmitri Susidko and James Derflinger with two hits apiece to lead the offense as the Bobcats outhit the Tigers 11-6 for the game.

Saddleback is now 13-5 overall and 1-1 in Orange Empire Conference play following the win.  The Bobcats will play the rubber game of the series with the Tigers on Saturday at Saddleback at 12:00 PM.