Gauchos walk-off grandslam, bench Santa Ana
Gauchos baseball team defeated the Santa Ana College Dons 7-3, Friday afternoon at Saddleback College in the 10th inning with a walk-off grand slam by Kyle Ferret to improve their season record 20-10, (8-7).
Heading into Friday’s game, Gauchos catcher Ferret had not hit one home run during his career at Saddleback, but that changed in the tenth inning of the game after a crack of the bat, Ferret connected with a pitch that was sent mid way up the chain-link wall in left center.
Ferret’s home run helped ensure the win against Santa Ana College’s relief pitcher James Roll.
Ferret made contact every at bat earning 5 RBIs and going 2-5 at the plate.
“I would take a sac fly if that was going to help his team win the ball game,” he said.
In this rematch, two of the conferences top starting pitchers Gauchos Evan Manarino and Dons Matt Blanchard battled tooth and nail for the victory.
Manarino lost to Santa Ana in his previous match up, yet he bounced back and held true to his word.
“We will get them next time,” Manarino said.
Manarino pitched until the seventh inning managing to let up only three runs in the fourth and fifth innings where he felt he “lost a little”, yet “settled down”, to regain composure in the sixth and seventh innings.
Gaucho relief right-handed pitcher, Trey Ferketic pitched from the eighth inning on, and held SAC from earning any more hits or runs, with two strikeouts.
“We played well, I thought we played good defense, Manarino pitched well, and we swung the bats when we needed too,” said head coach Sommer McCartney.
Both starting pitchers gave up three runs causing the game to reach the 10th inning where relief pitchers Ferketic and Roll battled out three innings. Roll started out strong holding the Gauchos to only one hit, yet let up a double to second baseman, Jeffery Butler in the tenth inning, intentionally walked two batters, loading the bases for Ferrets grand slam.