Saddleback Earns Top Spot in Playoffs

The obvious became official Monday when Saddleback was named the top-seeded team in the Southern California baseball playoffs.

The top spot means the Gauchos will be home Friday and Saturday in a best-of-three series with No. 16 Glendale (24-15). It also means the college will be one of two regional sites the next weekend if the Gauchos advance.

Cuesta (32-6) is seeded second and hosts No. 15 Cypress (22-20). A Cuesta victory means the Cougars would host the other four-team regional.

The Gauchos moved into position for the No. 1 spot Saturday by beating Riverside, 6-5, to earn a share of the Orange Empire Conference title. Saddleback had the tiebreaker advantage, and Riverside, seeded third in the playoffs, hosts Southwestern (24-14).

Santa Ana (29-13) is seeded seventh and hosts No. 10 San Bernardino Valley (29-8) in a rematch of last season’s first-round meeting.

Saddleback, led by sophomores Kirk Bolling (third base), Ryan Poe (pitcher) and Nick Punto (shortstop), won its last six conference games. The conference title is the first for Coach Jack Hodges in his nine seasons and the first for the college since 1984.

Saddleback was seeded second in Southern California last season but was eliminated in the second round. The Gauchos needed one victory on the final day of regional play to advance in 1996 but lost twice to Cypress, and the Gauchos were beaten by Santa Ana on the final day of regional play in 1995.

But none of those Saddleback teams had a player with Bolling’s impressive numbers. He leads the conference in hitting (.482) and has set career school records for hits (149), home runs (30), doubles (39), runs batted in (130) and is tied for being hit by pitches (23).

Poe, a right-hander, is 12-1 and already has set the Saddleback career victory mark at 19. He needs one more victory to set the college’s single-season mark.

Punto has scored 59 runs to set a Saddleback single-season record and is hitting .389 with 12 home runs and 48 RBIs.

Santa Ana has lost four of its past six, but being the third-seeded team has proved beneficial in the past. Cypress won the state title from that position last year and in 1991, and Santa Ana did it in 1996.