SANTA ANA – The Dons lost their first Orange Empire Conference game today with a 4-1 loss to visiting Cypress College. The loss drops the Dons to 4-8 on the season and 1-1 in conference while Cypress improves to 5-2 overall and 1-1 in conference.

The Chargers scored the bulk of their runs in the first two innings with two runs in the first and one run in the second. Two of those runs came in unearned as the Dons defense committed two errors in the first two frames.

Taylor Pierce singled in Alejandra Guillen for the first run before Khailey Campos scored on an error. The third run came across in the second when Pierce singled in Campos. Pierce, who was pitching for Cypress as well, helped her own cause again in the seventh inning when she singled in Guillen who had walked earlier in the inning.

The Dons struggled offensively through the first six innings of the game before getting three hits in the final inning. The biggest hit of the seventh belonged to Christina McCullogh who doubled in Tori Ferguson. Prior to the seventh inning, the Dons managed just one hit while another two base runners reached on errors.

After struggling in the first inning, Victoria Franks (4-6) settled down on the mound to put up a good pitching performance. However, she took the loss as she allowed four runs, two earned, on six hits. Pierce (4-1) got the win for Cypress as she held the Dons to one run on four hits over seven innings.