Saddleback College Men’s Baseball crushes the Palomar Comets

Braden Carr dominating the mound (Frank Rocha/Lariat)

The Saddleback College Men’s Baseball team continued their meeting with Palomar College back on Feb. 5, due to darkness. The Gauchos were leading 15-9, in the bottom of the eighth before their afternoon meeting. Palomar mounted seven runs, with a pair of doubles, singles and took advantage off an error to give the Comets the lead over the Gauchos going into the ninth, 16-15.

But the Gauchos in the top of the ninth, scored off of two RBI’s, to give a one run advantage over the Comets leading the bottom of the ninth. After a hit by pitch in the ninth Palomar batter, Kellen McCoy was hit by Gaucho, Andrew Herbert. Gaucho third-baseman, Tyler Chaffee had committed an error, having a Comet batter reach first. Runners on first and second, with one out Herbert gets bailed out with a Comet batter lining out to himself leading to a double-play, earning him the win and the conclusion to the ball game.

Saddleback College (8-3)  17

Palomar College (3-7)         16

Concluding the game from early February, the Gauchos and the Comets gear up for their next meeting in the next half hour.

Enter left-handed, Braden Carr, 0-1 for the season, gave a commanding and dominant start for the Gauchos. Carr gave six solid innings; no runs allowed, struck out four and only let the Comets earn three hits. Earning his first victory of the year.

“A spot start from Braden Carr, he did a great job for us,” said Saddleback College head coach Sommer McCartney. “He’s been throwing good stuff and he picks us up big time today.”

Gaucho pitching shutout the Comets on the defensive end. But the bats by the Gaucho were relentless and couldn’t be suppressed by Palomar. Scoring twelve runs off of seventeen hits, 10 RBI’s, three doubles and a home run. Gaucho short-stop, Carson Matthews went 5-5, with a double, RBI and a stolen base.

“To keep a shutout going is pretty impressive,” said McCartney. “Our guys did a good job scoring some runs too and they think we played a clean game all the way around.”

Head coach Sommer McCartney and Brendan Guy carry Nation Wood after suffering a high-ankle sprain at second base (Frank Rocha/Lariat)

But with happiness, there is always pain. In the bottom of the second, Gaucho designated hitter, Nation Wood sliding into second, earning an RBI, grabbing his ankle and started rolling in the dirt in pain. Accompanied by fellow Gaucho teammates, the coaching staff and the team’s trainer lead Wood off the field.

“From what I heard it’s a high-ankle sprain, we’ve had a lot of injuries this year and it’s tough to see Nation go down, because he has been swinging the bat so well and he’s such a big part of our offense and our team,” said McCartney. “Hopefully he has a speedy recovery, we have another kid home sick with the flu and another kid in crutches it’s been one thing after the other, it’s been tough.”

Saddleback College (9-3) 12

Palomar College (3-8)          0

The Gauchos play back to back games today against the Grossmont College Griffins (5-6) at home and on Thursday away against the Southwestern College Jaguars (7-5).

“We had four games last week and we were kind of short staffed for today because we have three games this week back to back to back,” said McCartney. “Hopefully we can have confidence on the mound too, when the next starter comes in and can fill it up like Braden did and hopefully it’s contagious and we can continue playing pretty good baseball.”

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