Rancho Santiago Stops Saddleback With Dramatic Homers

Rancho Santiago’s dramatic victory, which featured a game-tying home run in the eighth inning and a game-winning homer in the ninth, did a lot to take the drama out of the Orange Empire Conference baseball race.

Joe Secoda capped a four-hit day with a two-run home run with no outs in the ninth to give first-place Rancho Santiago a 7-5 victory over second-place Saddleback.

Rancho Santiago, the two-time defending state champion, is top-ranked this year and Saddleback is second.

Rancho Santiago (32-2-1, 14-1) holds a four-game lead, five in the loss column, over Saddleback (28-6, 11-6) with nine left.

The loss was especially frustrating for Saddleback, which had hoped gain some ground with the teams playing back-to-back games.

Now, the best Saddleback can hope for is to get back to where it started when the teams meet at noon Saturday at Golden West College.

Josh Reding started the ninth with an infield single and Rancho Santiago Coach Don Sneddon said he considered asking Secoda to bunt. But Secoda, a sophomore second baseman, had two doubles and single in his previous three at-bats and Sneddon reconsidered.

Instead Reding stole second well ahead of the throw. Secoda then hit a fastball over the left-center field fence off losing pitcher Ryan Poe (4-3).

“I knew once we got Josh to second base it was just a matter of time before we got that clutch hit,” Secoda said. “[Poe] throws pretty hard so I knew I had to be ready for a fastball. I knew I hit it well because I didn’t feel it off the bat.”

The inning before freshman right-fielder Rick Gonzalez hit the key home run.

Kevin Burford had singled to right despite being down in the count a ball and two strikes and Gonzalez lined a homer over the left-field fence off reliever Jeff Barndollar. It was Gonzalez’s sixth homer of the season.

“It was a well played game,” Sneddon said. “You never want to be down but it’s nice to come back like that. It sends a message that our kids won’t just roll over.”

All the late-inning heroics were needed because Saddleback got some clutch hits early and opened a 5-1 lead going into the bottom of the sixth behind starter Pat Versluis. He gave up two runs, one earned, through six innings.

Versluis appeared to tire in the seventh, when he walked Mike Hughley to open the inning and gave up a hard-hit double to Secoda, who had four runs batted in. Barndollar entered and, after a passed ball, Charlie Marino flied to right.

Saddleback’s Greg Ferrell moved back on the ball then got a running start and made the catch and made a strong throw to the plate to get a surprised Secoda. “That guy made a great throw,” Secoda said.

Heath Bell (7-0) gave up a hit but no runs in the ninth to get the victory. Bell entered in place of Matt Ward, who had pitched five consecutive complete games. Ward gave up 10 hits but didn’t walk a batter and threw a first-pitch strike to 29 of the 34 batters he faced.

Corrie Willkie, Nick Punto, Kirk Bolling and Jason Radwan each had two hits for Saddleback.

In other Orange Empire Conference baseball games:

Cypress 23, Orange Coast 6--Cypress’ Craig Kuzmic went five for five for the second consecutive Thursday. He also drove in three runs for the Chargers (27-7, 10-5). Jason Hoffman had three hits, including two doubles, and drove in two and Matt Dempsey had a grand slam for Cypress.

Jude Chavez had a ninth-inning grand slam for Orange Coast (11-22, 3-12).

Riverside 4, Golden West 3--Jaeme Leal hit a two-out, two-run home run to tie the game, 3-3, and two batters later Jason Bowring hit an RBI triple in the top of the ninth inning for Riverside (27-8, 8-7). Kevin Loken (3-6) pitched 8 2/3 innings and struck out eight for Golden West (11-22, 3-12).

In Orange Empire Conference men’s tennis:

Saddleback 7, Irvine Valley 2--Jacob Leon won the final singles match, 6-2, 5-7, 6-1, to give Saddleback (16-3, 11-1) a 4-2 advantage heading into the doubles matches. The doubles team of Kunio Koga and Matt Moore clinched the conference championship with a 6-1, 6-1 victory for the Gauchos.

Orange Coast 5, Cypress 4--The doubles team of Nhan Truong and Andy Rebulio-Dangelo won the final doubles match, 6-2, 6-4, for Orange Coast.

In Orange Empire Conference women’s tennis:

Saddleback 8, Irvine Valley 1--Gabi Rios defeated Jill Riley, 6-2, 6-1, for Saddleback (13-3, 12-0).

Orange Coast 9, Cypress 0--Cami Erickson won her single match, 6-0, 6-0, and Whitney Gilliam won her match, 6-0, 6-1, for Orange Coast (14-3, 10-2).