Saddleback routed by Pirates

Sophomore Casey Bennett is caught stealing during the Saddleback loss to OCC, 13-3, on Tuesday at Doug Fritz field in Mission Viejo, Calif. Photo by: Matt Corkill

The Saddleback College Gauchos were blown out in their loss to the Orange Coast College Pirates, 13-3, at Doug Fritz field in Mission Viejo, Calif., on Tuesday.

In the first inning the Gauchos gave up two unearned runs after a walk and a hit batsmen reached safely before scoring on a pair of errors by sophomore starter Trey Ferketic and sophomore shortstop Casey Bennett giving the Pirates the lead, 2-0. In the top of the third OCC added to their lead on a grand slam by Orange Empire Conference home run leader Chris Iriart (7) making it, 6-0.

“You can’t have your best days every day and it’s going to be how we respond now,” sophomore right fielder Brandon Cody said. “This is good that we got this worst game out of the way now instead of in playoffs and we just have to find a way collectively and get after it on Thursday.”

Saddleback hit the ball well throughout the game. Unfortunately for the Gauchos, the Pirates made some fantastic plays on them doubling up two runners on line drives in different innings to end the Saddleback rallies. It was certainly an uncharacteristic day for the OEC first place Gauchos who committed five errors, though only three were recorded, behind what most would call a shaky performance by the pitching staff.

“It was a pretty ugly day today and its not going to get it done when we didn’t hit much, we didn’t pitch and we made five errors,” head coach Sommer McCartney said following the loss. “We’ve got to turn the page and get back to work tomorrow in practice.”

Saddleback (19-10, 11-6) is still a game ahead of OCC (22-9, 10-7) and Santa Ana (19-11, 10-7) by a game and will continue their playoff push against Cypress (18-12, 9-8) at Doug Fritz field on Thursday with first pitch at 2 p.m.

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