Saddleback Earns Share of Title

Several of the Orange Empire Conference’s top baseball players were involved in the first-place showdown between Saddleback and Riverside on Saturday. But no one influenced the outcome more than the Gauchos’ Kirk Bolling.

He had five hits, including a game-winning single in the ninth inning, and drove in five runs in Saddleback’s 6-5 victory at Riverside.

Saddleback (32-9, 17-7) won a share of the conference title and the conference’s top seeding in the Southern California playoffs, which start Friday.

It’s the first conference title for Saddleback Coach Jack Hodges, who is in his ninth season.

“I’m just happy for the school,” Hodges said. “We took our lumps when I first came here. We were the doormats, but I made a promise to the people of the community that we’d come back.”

Bolling had a run-scoring single in the first, a three-run homer in the third, a triple in the fifth and a single in the seventh. He came up in the ninth with Nick Punto at second and one out.

Riverside countered with reliever Jeff Bajenaru. With a full count, Bolling fouled off two pitches before bouncing a single up the middle. Punto, who was going on the pitch, scored with ease.

“I had a really bad at-bat against [Bajenaru] last game,” Bolling said. “I thought they might walk me but I’m glad they didn’t. . . . This is awesome.”

Riverside (33-10, 17-7) could not score despite having the tying and winning runs on in the ninth.

Jason Clements got a one-out single for his fourth hit and Jaeme Leal, who leads the state with 22 homers, got a single one out later.

Hodges replaced starter Ryan Poe with Punto, the starting shortstop.

Punto got Bajenaru, who hit a three-run homer in the seventh, to ground the ball up the middle, where Levi Groomer fielded it and flipped it to second to end the game.

It was the first save for Punto, who has pitched 4 1/3 innings this season. “We knew he would get in there and get after it,” Hodges said. “We have been preparing him for that situation for the last month.”

Poe, who improved to 12-1, didn’t mind coming out of the game. “I was done,” he said. “I was like Jell-O.”

Bolling clinched the conference batting title, finishing the regular season at .482 (82 for 170).

With the five hits, he also set the Saddleback single-season hit record and is two away from his Saddleback single-season record of 66 RBIs. The homer was his 16th, leaving him one shy of the college’s single-season record.

In other Orange Empire Conference games:

Cypress 11, Orange Coast 1--Brandon Smith had three hits, including a double and three RBIs, and Nathan Endicott hit a two-run homer for visiting Cypress.

Ryan France had a home run in the second for the Pirates, who played without starting catcher John Lukin, second baseman Yoshi Ehinger and shortstop Bobby Calderon. All were suspended for their roles in a fight Tuesday.

Fullerton 13, Santa Ana 12-- Dan Smith’s two-out RBI single capped a four-run ninth for host Fullerton (19-21-1, 8-16). Mike McCue and Mike Caira had RBI singles for the first two runs. Pinch-hitter Jeremy Viscusi’s sacrifice fly helped tie the score, 12-12. Nick Garcia had a single, double and a home run, his third, for Fullerton.

Santa Ana is 29-13, 13-11.