Saddleback Beats Riverside to Gain a Share of First Place

Saddleback moved into a tie for first place with a 4-3 victory over Riverside in Orange Empire Conference baseball Tuesday at Riverside.

Greg Pines drove in a run with a double in the second and scored on a single by Lars Birkeland. Pines hit a home run in the fourth and had an RBI groundout in the eighth to give the Gauchos (25-8, 11-6 in the conference) a 4-2 lead.

Riverside (25-9, 11-6) scored a run in the ninth but ran itself out of the inning. With one out, Jeff Bagenaru was hit by a pitch by starter Ryan Poe (10-1).

The next batter, Greg Blum, hit a line drive that right fielder Clare Langford lost in the sun. The ball dropped after hitting Langford in the face.

With runners on first and second, Chris Taylor’s fly to right dropped in, but pinch runner Scott Shepard ran up on Bagenaru, who had stopped at third. Shepard was tagged out while running back to second and Bagenaru scored.

Saddleback reliever Kekoa Colon struck out Ben Rosenthal to end the inning.

Riverside’s Cody Trask (9-3) went the distance, giving up seven hits, striking out five and walking one.

Poe struck out four and walked one.

In other conference games:

Fullerton 16, Santa Ana 12--The Hornets rallied from an eight-run deficit, led by Bo Bryant’s two home runs, Brandon Carter’s three-run homer by Brandon Carter and Ernesto Jaime’s home run. Mike Timanus (3-0) pitched 2 2/3 innings for the victory.

Rick Gonzalez had three hits and Joe Hurka had a double and a triple for the Dons.

In women’s tennis:

Asakawa records upset--Irvine Valley’s Etsuko Asakawa upset ninth-seeded Melissa Walker of Orange Coast in the first round of the Orange Empire Conference women’s tennis tournament.

Asakawa defeated Walker, 6-4, 6-4, to advance Thursday’s second round. Top-seeded Martha Garcia of Orange Coast, also advanced with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Fullerton’s Nicole Payne.