SANTA ANA, Calif. – The Dons must have felt a sense of déjà vu, as they found themselves in another thriller against the Fullerton Hornets in game one of their Orange Empire Conference series on Tuesday.
After being down for much of the game, Santa Ana climbed its way back to set up a bases loaded jam with no outs and just one run deficit. The situation almost identical to the end of their game against Cypress on Friday, except this time, the Dons found a way come out on top.
Santa Ana got the monkey off its back when Derek Sims drew a walk to tie the game at nine apiece, putting all the pressure on Fullerton with leadoff hitter James Williams coming up to bat.
Williams was the last out in Friday's heartbreaker but got his chance to make up for it as he stepped to the plate on Tuesday. The third baseman watched a couple pitches before blooping a single over the Hornet shortstop to drive in Copper Hansen and win it 10-9 for the Dons.
The win marks the seventh time this season that the Dons have come back to win after being down after five innings.
A big reason why the comeback was possible was the performances of Kyle Hoskins and Frank Garcia.
Hoskins, a freshman from Tustin High, went 4.1 shutout innings for the win. He struck out five and allowed just two hits to improve his record to 2-0 with an ERA of 3.72. And Garcia, a sophomore from Warren High, was 4-5 with two runs batted in. Garcia is now hitting .362 with eight RBI's on the season.
UP NEXT
Game two of the series will be at Fullerton College on Thursday, March 28th at 2:00 p.m.