SANTA ANA - The Dons used a late offensive push to hold off a Cerritos College rally and defeat the visiting Falcons 16-8 in the first game of a two-game set. The Dons (7-0) will travel to Cerritos (4-2) on Thursday to complete the series.
The Falcons opened the game with a run in the first inning using two infield singles to generate the offense before the Dons scored one run in each of the first two innings to grab an early 2-1 lead. Tommy Anderson scored on Chris Major's sacrifice fly in the first before Anderson plated Trevor Steinman in the second with a sacrifice fly of his own.
The Dons pushed their lead to 7-1 by the fifth inning with the help of a four-run fourth inning. Anderson drew a bases loaded walk to score Andrew Ramos before Steinman scored on a Colin Winn sacrifice fly. Major then singled in Bobby Vasquez and Anderson to cap the rally. Vasquez made the lead 7-1 in the fifth when he plated Ramos on a RBI-groundout.
But Cerritos would come back in a hurry to take an 8-7 lead over the Dons in the top of the sixth inning. The Falcons sent eight batters to the plate, including five-straight hits, before the Dons recorded the first out. Gary James and Kenton McDonald each drove in two runs apiece as the Falcons rallied for seven runs on seven hits.
That lead, however, wouldn't last long as the Dons answered with two runs in the bottom of the sixth to go back on top at 9-8. Austin Pritchard singled in Major for the tying run before Jeff Murray scored the go-ahead run on a sacrifice bunt by Ramos.
The Dons offense continued to roll from there, scoring five runs in the seventh and two runs in the eighth. In the five-run seventh inning, the Dons runs came across with just one hit, a Pritchard grand slam. The other run of the inning came on a bases loaded walk drawn by Patrick Cromwell. In the eighth inning, Winn scored on a wild pitch after Vasquez scored on a RBI-single by Cromwell.
Lost in the offensive shuffle of the middle innings was the performance by starting pitcher Austin Vander Riet. He didn't factor into the decision but pitched five solid innings for the Dons before allowing five of his six runs in the sixth inning rally by Cerritos. Vander Riet's final line was six runs on 10 hits with five strikeouts and no walks in five innings.
Keaton Freire (1-0) got the win in relief for the Dons as he pitched one inning in relief while allowing just one hit. For Cerritos, Sean Kinnicutt (1-1) took the loss after allowing five runs on five hits in two innings of relief work.
