Things got interesting on Saturday afternoon, as the College of the Canyons Cougars baseball team watched as the L.A. Valley Monarchs continued to close the gap on them throughout the afternoon.

But the one-two punch of Alex Bishop and Chad DeLaGuerra helped the Cougars to a 7-5 win over the visiting Monarchs.

“Chad had a good day, and he was able to have a good day because Bishop had a good day,” said COC head coach Chris Cota of the duo.

DeLaGuerra tallied four RBIs, going 3-for-5 with two singles and a double, including the eventual game-winner.

Bishop, hitting in front of DeLaGuerra, doubled twice and added a triple.

DeLaGuerra did most of his damage early on, driving in a run in the first to tie the game at one and again in the third to give COC a 3-2 lead.

His third and fourth RBIs came an inning later, when he helped the Cougars (8-9 overall, 4-4 Western State South Conference) open up a commanding 6-2 advantage.

It was a stark turnaround from Wednesday’s game with the Monarchs (3-15-1, 2-8), when DeLaGuerra went 0-5, leaving four men on base.

L.A. Valley, which lost to the Cougars 10-3 at home on Wednesday, didn’t make things easy on COC.

The Monarchs got to COC starting pitcher Steven Farnworth in the fifth, putting up a three spot to pull within 6-5.

But Farnworth got out of the inning with the lead, and reliever Julian Garcia shut the Monarchs down from there.

Garcia pitched three innings without allowing a hit.

“He was outstanding. We needed him to do that,” Cota said. “Farnworth had a tough time today a little bit and it was nice to have a guy go in there and quiet things down for us.

Icezack Flemming closed out the game for COC.

The offensive production didn’t stop with Bishop and DeLaGuerra, though.

Kamran Young went 3-for-4 with a double and two singles and Ryan Mulvihill was 2-for-4.

In total, COC had 12 hits on the day.

“It was good, that’s what we have not had,” Cota said of multiple guys stepping up offensively.

With the second half of the season ahead, the Cougars hope they’re starting to hit their stride.

“That’s what we talked about,” Cota said. “Hopefully we can continue that. We have two games with West L.A. next week and two with Mission. We’re back to 4-4 in conference and we’re playing all right.”