COMMUNITY COLLEGE BASEBALL ROUNDUP : Rancho Santiago Holds On to Beat Saddleback

Rancho Santiago took a five-run lead into the ninth inning of its Orange Empire Conference baseball game against Saddleback and needed every bit of it to escape with a 7-6 victory Thursday at Rancho Santiago.

Steve Thobe, the third Rancho Santiago pitcher, got Bo Haley to look at Strike 3 for the final out with runners on first and second.

Thobe entered in place of Kent Dowding with two on (a walk and an error) and one out. He struck out Scott Holty but gave up RBI singles to Neil Garcia and Justin Drizos and a two-run single by Nathan Malagon before getting Haley.

“It’s been this way all season,” Rancho Santiago Coach Don Sneddon said. “I think we have had about four games that didn’t go down to the last pitch.”

Early on, it hardly looked as though the game was going to be a close. Matt Kostelic and David Gonzalez had doubles and Darren Troilo followed with a three-run home run to give Rancho Santiago a 3-0 lead in the first inning.

Brandon Hoalton, the Rancho Santiago starter, retired the first 15 he faced before Cade Gaspar opened the sixth by lining a single to left. Later in the inning, Ted Wilkes had an RBI single and another run scored when Hoalton hit Drizos with an 0-2 pitch with the bases loaded.

Rancho Santiago made it 6-2 with three runs in the sixth. Derek Brown had an RBI single, and two runs scored when Saddleback center fielder Mike Robertson misplayed a fly ball by Jason Wakefield for a two-base error.

Brown lined a home run over the left-center field fence as Rancho Santiago took a 7-2 lead in the eighth.

The victory keeps the Dons (25-5, 10-4 in conference) a half-game in front of Orange Coast, which defeated Fullerton, 10-1, Thursday. Rancho Santiago travels to Saddleback (23-10, 9-8) for a game at noon Saturday.