SANTA ANA - The Dons were forced to use some late inning heroics before getting a walk-off 8-7 win over visiting Oxnard College in the season opener. The game came down to a sacrifice fly off the bat of Trevor Steinman that scored Jeff Murray from third base for the game-winner.
The final inning was set up by Oxnard (0-1) rallying for four runs in the final two innings after the Dons (1-0) had established a 7-3 lead. The Condors scored three runs in the eighth, two unearned, before scoring the game-tying run on a wild pitch in the top of the ninth inning.
But the Dons answered with three-straight singles to load the bases in the bottom of the ninth inning. The third single, which followed Chris Major and Murray's singles, was a bunt single by Justin Mellano. After a fielder's choice led to the first out at home plate, Steinman lifted a fly ball to centerfield to score Murray for the game-winner.
The Dons built their 7-3 lead by scoring at least one run over four-straight innings after Oxnard scored three runs in the first inning. Andrew Ramos drove in the first two runs with a double in the third inning before Murray hit a leadoff home run in the fourth inning to tie the game at 3-3.
Major broke the tie with a RBI-single that scored Ramos in the fifth inning before Austin Pritchard put the Dons up 5-3 when he scored on Bobby Vasquez's sacrifice fly in the sixth inning. Finally, in the seventh inning, Ramos and Patrick Cromwell hit back-to-back home runs to make the score 7-3.
Andrew Hodges (1-0) got the win as he pitched the final 1.2 innings in relief. He finished with a final line of one run on three hits and two strikeouts. Antonio Gaxiola (0-1) took the loss for Oxnard as he allowed one run on five hits over 2.2 innings of work.
The win came in the first career game for Santa Ana College's new head coach, Tom Nilles. Nilles was hired as a full-time instructor and head baseball coach for the Dons last spring.
"I'm obviously excited for the win," Nilles said. "More than anything I'm truly proud of the guys for performing the way they did in what was an up and down, emotional game. The outcome came down to the team executing what they had to in order to win a baseball game."
