Saddleback Defeats Orange Coast in Baseball

Visiting Saddleback scored an unearned run in the seventh inning to beat Orange Coast, 4-3, Tuesday and move into a third-place tie with the Pirates in the Orange Empire Conference.

Vinny Valiente scored the game-winning run from second base for Saddleback (26-9, 10-7) when Zack Dobek got a bloop hit and Pirate left fielder Eric Estrada committed a throwing error.

The Gauchos have won six straight and Orange Coast (22-11, 10-7) has dropped three in a row.

In other conference games:

Fullerton 1-2, Riverside 0-8--Jerry Robertson’s RBI single in the bottom of the 16th gave the Hornets the victory in a game continued from March 8. Ryan McLean (1-1) earned the victory with four shutout innings. Second-place Riverside (31-5, 13-4) hit three home runs in the second game. Brian Ziarnick had two hits, extending his hitting streak to 18 games, for Fullerton (16-19, 7-10).

Santa Ana 11, Golden West 4--Justin Gerlach was three for four and Tony Alcantar added a two-run home run for host Santa Ana (28-6, 15-2).