Dons Down Golden Eagles to Move On to Championship Monday
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 4 |
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0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | X | 12 | 14 | 3 |
Irvine, Calif. - After a bit of an icy patch, the bats of the Santa Ana Dons found their stroke when it was needed most as they rolled to a 12-3 win over Feather River College on Day 2 of the 3C2A Baseball State Championships on Sunday night at the Great Park.
With the win, the Dons (42-6-1) advance to the State Championship finals, where they take on fellow Southern California neighbor, Palomar College, on Monday, beginning at 11 a.m. Santa Ana will need to win twice to win the title, while the undefeated Comets will need just one more "W" to clinch their first-ever state title in program history.
SAC starting pitcher Zach Ireland (8-1) gave his team all he had and then some. The righty pitched seven strong innings, holding the Golden Eagles (37-16) to three runs (two earned) on seven hits over seven innings with three walks and eight strikeouts over a 135-pitch performance.
Trailing 1-0 heading into the bottom of the fourth, the Dons snapped a nine-inning, three-hit, scoreless drought that began midway through the 4-3 loss to Palomar earlier in the day by scoring five runs to take over the game for good. Barrett Ronson walked to lead off the frame and moved up to second on a single by Nikko Paoletto, a throw off a sacrifice bunt by Ken Tomitaka was lost in the sun, allowing Ronson to score from second to even the score at 1-1. Nathaniel Williams then drove in Paoletto and Tomitaka with a two-run single up the middle before Ben Melendrez launched a two-run home run over the left-field fence and just like that … five batters, five runs.
From there, the drought was over and the Dons added on in every inning, finishing the night with 12 runs on 14 hits, highlighted by home runs from Paoletto (3-for-5, two runs, three RBI), Melendrez (1-for-3, three RBI) and Evan Reiter (3-for-5, two runs, one RBI). Aiden Marquez added to the SAC offense, going 2-for-5 with one run and one RBI.
Feather River picked up multi-hit nights from Walker DesRosier (2-for-5), Legend Lancaster (2-for-4, one run), and Nick Anderson (2-for-4, one run). FRC starter Marcus Maeder (6-3) started strong with three shutout frames on the potent Dons offense before faltering in the fourth.
Courtesy of Tony Altobelli, CCCSIA