SANTA ANA, Calif. - On Tuesday, March 15th the No. 3 ranked Santa Ana Baseball team and the No. 17 ranked Riverside City Tigers (14-8, 3-3) began a three game series in the second week of Orange Empire Conference play.
GAME 1
The Dons (17-5-1, 2-4) came up clutch with six runs in the 10th inning to earn a 10-7 win in extra innings.
Kyle Ashworth tied the game at 4-4 in the top of the eighth with an inside the park homerun to center field before giving SAC the lead in the 10th with an RBI single through the right side.
The centerfielder from Foothill High finished 2-of-4 with three runs, two runs batted in and a walk.
Austin Haller and Sebastian McSherry provided the rest of the run support for the Dons as the two combined for seven runs batted in on four hits.
Matt Schavone picked up the win after getting out of a jam in the eighth and going two innings before leaving with the lead intact.
RCC attempted a comeback as they scored three in the bottom half of the ninth but were stopped by Emmanuel Niebla, who earned the save while giving up just one hit in the 10th.
GAME 2
Offensively, Riverside used the whole field in game two as the Tigers recorded 20 hits with an onslaught of bloopers as well as some hard hit balls.
RCC jumped out to an early 6-0 lead before Santa Ana answered with a four run fourth inning. But the momentum never shifted as the Tigers stayed hot in the next inning to produce seven more runs to make it a 13-4 game.
The Dons added a few more runs in the ensuing innings but could not mount a comeback, resulting in a 15-9 final score.
SAC outfielder Kyle Morrell had an impressive performance with six runs batted in on three hits while infielder Marc Schavone posted his own three hit day.
Jimmy Urban took the loss after giving up three earned runs in two innings in his first start of the year.
GAME 3
In the series finale, Riverside stayed hot at the plate while the Dons had one of their lowest scoring games of the year.
Santa Ana just could not figure out the RCC pitching staff and recorded just six hits for three runs on the day.
On the other side, the Tigers steadily racked up runs throughout the game to finish with 14 runs on 15 hits.
With the 14-3 loss, the Dons are now 17-5-1, 2-4 while RCC improves to 14-8, 3-3.
NEXT UP
Santa Ana Baseball will continue their OEC schedule with a series against No. 22 Golden West (14-9, 2-4) on Tuesday afternoon at Santa Ana College. The GWC Rustlers are coming off two straight losses to Cypress.
