SANTA ANA, Calif. - No. 11 Santa Ana Baseball bounced back with an 8-2 win over the No. 8 ranked Golden West Rustlers (15-9, 3-5) in Orange Empire Conference (OEC) play on Thursday afternoon.  

The Dons (14-10, 4-4) got to work early as Christian Thompson lined an RBI single up the middle to score Sebastian McSherry for the first run of the game in the second inning.

In the fourth inning, Mikey Rocha pushed the SAC lead to 2-0 with his first homerun of the season. 

But Golden West showed why they are ranked in the top ten in the South as they rallied for two to tie the game in the top of the sixth. 

With the score tied, Santa Ana needed to respond quickly and did just that. The Dons put together a string of walks and timely singles to add on six runs in the bottom half of the sixth to regain the lead, which they held onto for the rest of the game. 

Hauze Fragoso had another solid outing as the freshman right-hander went 5.1 innings with four strikeouts and two unearned runs. Matt Schavone earned his first win after being called on in a high pressure situation. Schavone got out the inning with minimal damage and while conceding just one hit. James Showalter struck out five batters and shutout the Rustlers in the final 2.2 innings of the game. 

Thompson, Rocha and Matthew Dobson recorded two hits each for the Dons and combined for four runs batted in. As a team, the Dons collected eight runs on 11 hits, seven walks while leaving just nine runners on base. 

Santa Ana will try to win the series when they go on the road for the series finale on Saturday. First pitch is set for 12:00 p.m. in Huntington Beach.