SANTA ANA, Calif. – The No. 12 ranked Santa Ana baseball team hosted the No. 14 Long Beach City Viking (24-12) in the first of their two game non-conference series on Tuesday afternoon.

Santa Ana came into the series with a 22-11 record after defeating No. 6 Riverside 3-0 behind Nathan Cachu's complete game shutout in Friday's series finale.

They hoped to carry that momentum into the series with the red hot Vikings, who were winners of four straight prior to the game and hold the first place spot in the South Coast Conference.

The Dons got off to a sluggish start, diminishing their chances of pulling off a win as they allowed Long Beach to score in each of the first four innings.

In the sixth, Santa Ana finally got on the board when Copper Hansen singled home Grant Askins. They scored their second and final run in the ninth on a James Williams' RBI single, ending the game with the Vikings on top 8-2.

Joel Casillas (2-3) took the loss for the Dons after going 2.1 innings with three earned runs and two strikeouts. Kyle Hoskins finished the last 6.2 innings, allowing four unearned runs in the fourth but shut down the Long Beach offense in the last five innings.

UP NEXT

Santa Ana will travel to Long Beach for game two of the series on Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. before returning home for another non-conference game against Oxnard (12-21-1) on Thursday at 2:00 p.m.