Saddleback Turns Back Santa Ana
Saddleback pitcher Ryan Poe wasn’t thrilled with the condition of the mound at Santa Ana College.
And he wasn’t too happy about the way things went in the first inning, when the Gauchos fell two runs behind.
Poe managed to get past this and pitch a seven-hitter as Saddleback won, 6-4, to stand alone in second place. Poe, a sophomore right-hander, improved to 11-1.
Saddleback Coach Jack Hodges and staff met before the bottom of the ninth to discuss removing Poe. With no one in favor of the move, Poe stayed in and made eight pitches to retire the Dons in order.
“Poe’s effort was outstanding,” Hodges said, “His effort picked us all up.”
Poe, who had walked six in 94 1/3 innings before Tuesday, walked two in the first. Santa Ana scored the two runs when Ryan Blackbum’s bases-loaded fly fell between left fielder Mike LaRue and shortstop Nick Punto.
“I was just a little upset after the first inning,” Poe said, “The mound wasn’t very good and getting used to it was pretty hard.”
Poe then settled in, retiring nine in a row going into the seventh inning. Santa Ana’s Chad Elliott reached second on two errors and scored on Reggie Nelson’s home run, which made the score, 5-4.
Bao Vinh doubled but the rally died when he stole third but was called out for losing contact with the base.
Greg Pines hit a two-out double in the eighth and scored on Clare Langford’s single to put Saddleback up, 6-4.
First baseman Jason Marion had two doubles and drove in two runs for Saddleback (27-9, 13-7), which is a half-game behind Riverside. He also saved a run in the second inning by spearing a line drive with two out and a runner at second in the second inning. Santa Ana is 28-10, 12-8.
In another conference baseball game:
Cypress 11, Golden West 8--Visiting Cypress broke the game open with four runs in the fifth inning, capped by Adam Spiker’s three-run homer off his brother, Chad Spiker. Brandon Smith had four hits and four RBIs for Cypress (20-18, 10-10).
In the Southern California men’s volleyball playoffs:
Golden West 3, Santa Monica 0--Todd Clevenger had 22 kills and eight blocks and Scott Lane had 20 kills as Golden West won, 15-6, 15-12, 15-9, to advance to the state tournament. Santa Monica’s nine-match winning streak was stopped.
In the Southern California men’s tennis playoffs:
Saddleback 6, Long Beach 0--Kunio Koga defeated Long Beach’s Kenji Hara-Joesting in singles, 6-1, 6-3, as Saddleback won in the first round of regional play. Dan Roditi defeated Jay Datu of Long Beach, 6-2, 6-0.