SANTA ANA - A late rally was erased as the Dons lost game one of their Orange Empire Conference series to Saddleback College 13-11. The Dons (16-9, 3-7), who had trailed for the first six innings, forced an 11-11 tie in the seventh inning before the Gauchos (20-5, 8-2) scored twice in the ninth to claim the win.
The Dons seventh-inning rally started with a Trevor Steinman single before Nathan Cervantes hit a one-out single to move Steinman to second. Justin Mellano followed with a RBI-single to score Steinman, making the score 11-9 in favor of Saddleback. Colin Winn then tied the game with a two-run single through the right side, scoring Cervantes and Mellano.
But the Gauchos took advantage of an interference call to score twice in the ninth. With runners on first and second and one out, Brandon Heinrich hit a ball to short stop that could have led to an inning-ending double play. But the ball hit the lead runner, putting just the second out on the board.
In the next at bat, Andrew Wilson singled in Jerry Carrillo, who was in as a pinch runner, for the go-ahead run. The Gauchos then drew back-to-back walks, the second with the bases loaded, to force in the 13th run of the game.
Prior to the late rallies by both clubs, Saddleback opened the game with a five-run first before the Dons answered with a four-run first inning of their own. Each team scored one run apiece in the second inning before Saddleback scored three runs in the third followed by the Dons scoring three runs in the fourth. The next two runs belonged to Saddleback with one scoring in the fifth and another in the sixth, setting up the Dons three-run seventh inning.
Winn ended the day batting 4-for-5 with two RBI and two runs scored while Patrick Cromwell went 3-for-5 with three RBI. Andrew Natividad added two RBI with Jeff Murray, Steinman and Mellano each driving in one run apiece.
Guillermo Sanchez (4-3) took the loss for the Dons as he allowed two runs on two hits in 1.2 innings of work. Jordan Scheftz (3-1) got the win for Saddleback as he allowed just one run on two hits in 1.2 innings while Daniel Endsley (4) got the save as he pitched a perfect ninth inning.
