Baseball stuns Lasers late

The Saddleback baseball team rallied from behind to beat Irvine Valley College, 5-4, on Tuesday at the Great Park in Irvine.  Saddleback scored two runs in the ninth inning in turning back the Lasers.

Saddleback trailed 4-1 heading into the top of the seventh inning before mounting a charge.  Nick Dietsch scored the second run of the game for the baseball team when Danilo Tiotuico hit into a double play, scoring Dietsch to cut the lead to 4-2.  The next batter was Johnathan Behm, who homered to left field to narrow the gap to 4-3.

The game went to the ninth inning with the same score and Saddleback quickly turned up the pressure when Dietsch singled to lead off the inning.  The baseball team then inserted Liam O'Connor to run for Dietsch, and he quickly advanced to second base on a wild pitch.  Brent Riddle then lifted a fly ball to center field, advancing O'Connor to third base on a sacrifice.  Irvine Valley walked Tiotuico, hoping to set up a potential game-ending double-play.  It backfired as Behm flied out to left field, scoring O'Connor on the sacrifice while Tiotuico took second base on the throw.  With two outs in the inning, Nation Wood (pictured) then followed with a go-ahead double to left-center field and Saddleback had its first lead of the game.

Saddleback closed out the ninth inning with Ethan Holt pitching his fourth inning of the game.  Holt struck out two of the four batters he faced in the inning and picked up the win when Eric Burckle grounded out to third base to end the game.  Holt (1-0) finished with six strikeouts over four innings in getting his first decision of the season.

Saddleback (9-4, 5-2) outhit Irvine Valley (3-9-1, 3-7) 10-5 for the game.  Behm led the Saddleback offense, finishing 3-for-4 with three RBI.

The two teams will be back at it again on Thursday at the Great Park in Irvine.  The first pitch is scheduled for 2:00 PM.