Roadrunners rally to stun Eagles

Saddleback High showed up to play Estancia with the kind of attitude it hasn’t exuded much during its six years in the Orange Coast League. Coach Bishop Griggs wanted to call it swagger, which is saying a lot when you consider the Roadrunners have won once in their past 58 league contests.

The latest baseball game took place on the road at TeWinkle Park on Tuesday night, and under the lights, the Roadrunners shined.

Saddleback is confident these days because of Christian Prado. The senior made his second appearance in eight days on the mound this season and he won this time around.

The transfer from Segerstrom went the distance, striking out six and allowing three hits in the Roadrunners’ 4-2 come-from-behind win. With the right-hander, Saddleback snapped a 16-game losing streak in league dating back to last year.

Two two-run innings proved to be the difference in Saddleback earning its first win against Estancia in league play. The Roadrunners took advantage of four errors in the fifth and a balk and an error in the seventh to win for only the fourth time this season.

“Today was the day where they made the mistakes that we usually make,” said Griggs, whose team last won on Feb. 27, when Saddleback swept a doubleheader against Santa Ana Valley on opening day. “We capitalized when teams usually capitalize on us.”

Seeing his team finally execute the suicide squeeze helped the Roadrunners (4-15, 1-5 in league). They failed to do so with no outs in the second inning.

The play worked in the seventh, as it produced the final two runs.

With runners on the corners and nobody out, Mark Silvas put down the bunt. The Eagles expected the squeeze, and they called a pitch out, but Silvas lunged at the outside pitch from Nick Torres, pushing the ball toward second base, where there was no one to field the ball.

Diego Salyrosas easily scored from third to break the 2-2 tie, and then David Rojas motored home after a throwing error to third base, giving Saddleback a two-run lead.

“It should’ve been a lot further out,” Estancia Coach Nate Goellrich said of the pitch out. “It was way too close to the plate and then the circus ensued after that.

“Our goal is [to win] a league championship. Losing this game obviously hurts that, it doesn’t eliminate us, just makes it tougher.”

The setback is a costly one for the Eagles (11-7, 3-3), who trail Calvary Chapel and Laguna Beach, both are atop the league at 5-0. The Eagles couldn’t knock around a program they had outscored, 188-26, in the previous 16 matchups in league.

Prado (1-1) stood in the way of Estancia, which saw only Nic Mazur, Trevor Brown and Connor Brown get a hit.

Prado, who hit two and walked one, came out for the seventh having thrown 72 pitches. He needed only 12 more to finish off Estancia.

Prado struck out the first two batters he saw swinging, before Colin Gardner hit the ball well to right field, only to see Richard Gortarez make a one-handed leaping grab to end the game.

“It was a combination of a misread and a nice play,” Griggs said of Gortarez’s catch.

The Eagles couldn’t play catch in the fifth inning, seeing their 2-0 lead vanish.

Connor Brown, who started and struck out eight, walked two, hit one and gave up three hits in five innings, mowed down the first two batters in the fifth. Then the next two batters reached based after Torres couldn’t field two grounders to shortstop, the second error allowed Saddleback to cut the deficit in half.

A pick-off move by Brown to first got away, moving a runner into scoring position for the Roadrunners. Silvas, who went two for four with two runs batted in, singled to right field to drive in a run to even things up at 2-2.

“We fell apart there in the fifth inning,” said Goellrich, whose team plays host to Downey Calvary Chapel in a nonleague game on Thursday and travels to Saddleback to resume league play on Friday. “I think our problem was coming off spring break. Saddleback played great. [Griggs is] doing a great job with that program.

“We weren’t ourselves tonight.”

Neither were the Roadrunners, who won for just the second time in 59 tries in league.

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Orange Coast League

Saddleback 4, Estancia 2

SCORE BY INNINGS

Saddleback 000 020 2 – 4 5 2

Estancia 020 000 0 – 2 3 5

Prado and Jaramillo; Brown, Torres (6) and Harrison. W – Prado, 1-1. L – Torres, 3-3.