SANTA ANA, Calif. - The No. 18 ranked Santa Ana Baseball team collected two wins on Saturday afternoon to close their first Orange Empire Conference (OEC) series against the No. 4 ranked Orange Coast Pirates (14-5, 1-2).
The Dons (11-7, 2-1) started off the day by completing their comeback from the halted game that began on Thursday. In the top of the 11th inning, Santa Ana put the nail in the coffin with four runs which led to a 12-8 win.
Christian Thompson tripled off of the right centerfield fence to lead off the inning. A couple batters later, Mario Tostado singled through the left side to give the Dons the lead.
With the bases loaded, Troy Kent picked up an RBI as he was hit by a pitch to score the second run of the inning. Marc Schavone drove home the third with a sacrifice fly before Thomas Williams added the fourth run on a single to left.
CJ Brown earned his fourth win of the season as the right hander struck out five over the final three innings.
In the series finale, the Dons carried that momentum over to run away with a 16-4 route.
The Pirates took advantage of a Don error and scored one in the top of the second. But Santa Ana returned the favor as they scored two after a wild pitch and a Pirate error.
In the fourth inning, SAC struck again with Tostado doubling home a Austin Haller before Mikey Rocha brought home the fourth run with an RBI single up the middle.
The game was put out of reach a couple innings later after Haller launched a ball over the right centerfield fence for a grand slam to cap a seven run inning.
Jaxton Andeel had one of his best outings of the season with seven strikeouts over six innings while giving up just one unearned run. The left hander out of Orange Lutheran lowered his ERA to 2.55 while picking up his second win.
In addition, Tostado made his pitching debut as he escaped a bases loaded situation to complete a scoreless inning with two strikeouts.
Santa Ana will take on No. 1 Saddleback (15-3, 3-0) in their next series starting on Monday.
Series win‼ �� #DonsRoll pic.twitter.com/Gb0eCR4Cdx
— SAC Dons (@SACDons) March 12, 2023
