SANTA ANA - The Dons nearly opened the 2016 season in dramatic fashion but couldn't finish their late rally as they lost to visiting East Los Angeles College 10-9 in a non-conference game. The six runs the Dons (0-1) scored in the final two frames weren't quite enough to overcome the six-run lead built by the Huskies (1-0).

It was the Dons that scored first with Hattie Marshall doubling in Madison Graham in the bottom of the first inning after Graham reached on a two-out double. But the Huskies came back with a six-run second inning as they sent 11 batters to the plate. East Los Angeles scored the six runs on seven hits while also getting two walks in the inning.

After the Huskies added an unearned run in the top of the third inning, the Dons got two runs back in the bottom of the fourth on Christina McCullogh's double that scored Kasey Hutton and Alexandra Hernandez.

However, East Los Angeles put three more runs, all unearned, on the board in the top of the fifth inning to extend its lead to 10-3. The Dons then turned to Marshall on the mound who ended the inning with a groundout.

Finally, in the sixth inning, the Dons bats came alive as they used six hits to score five runs and cut the Huskies lead to just two at 10-8. Included in the rally was a RBI-triple by Hutton and two RBI-doubles by Graham and Desiree Hernandez. Mercedes Munoz added a RBI-single and Karina Munoz had a sacrifice fly to round out the Dons scoring.

The Dons rally continued into the seventh inning with McCullogh opening the final frame with a single before scoring from first base on Desiree Hernandez's RBI-double. The Dons would get two more baserunners on before East Los Angeles' Byanka Diosdado induced a lineout to centerfield to end the game.

Diasdodo (1-0) got the win for the Huskies with seven runs allowed in 6.2 innings of work while Hutton (0-1) took the loss for the Dons as she allowed eight runs, six earned, on 10 hits over 4.2 innings pitched.