Belleza tangles Bengals

The Saddleback softball team rose above .500 in Orange Empire Conference play with a 5-1 victory over Riverside City College on Friday at the Saddleback softball diamond.  Gaucho pitcher Veronica Belleza recorded 11 strikeouts in the win.

Belleza was hitting her spots on Friday, striking out at least one Riverside City player in every inning.  She started the game by striking out the side in the opening inning in improving to 10-3 on the season.

Saddleback took a 1-0 lead in the bottom half of the opening inning when Emma Estep doubled down the left-field line to drive in Vanessa Alvarran with the opening run of the game.  The Gauchos extended the lead to 2-0 in the second inning when Belleza walked to open the inning and eventually came around to score after a couple of wild pitches by Riverside starter Carrah Van Houten.

Riverside closed the gap to 2-1 in the top half of the fourth inning when the Tigers took advantage of an error to start the inning and then got a single from Jazlyn Dean that glanced off of the glove of Alvarran at second base, allowing Mia Gomez to score.  Belleza then tamed Riverside's growl with two strikeouts and a lazy ground ball to get out of the inning. 

Saddleback tacked on solo runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings in putting the game out of reach.  Mackenzy Peak drove a ball to right field for a single to score Victoria Verruto with the final run of the game in putting the Gauchos up 5-1.  Peak finished 2-for-2 on the afternoon.  Anne Thibert and Annalie Benjamen also had two hits on the day as Saddleback outhit the Tigers 10-3 for the game. 

Saddleback now stands at 13-6 overall and 4-3 in Orange Empire Conference play following the win.  The Gauchos are in a three-way tie for third place with Santa Ana College and Fullerton College.

Saddleback continues OEC play at Golden West College next Wednesday (2:00 PM) before returning home to play second place Santiago Canyon College next Friday at 2:00 PM.