CYPRESS, CA- Charger baseball (24-12, 10-8 OEC) walked off the Santa Ana Dons (24-13, 11-7 OEC) on Saturday for their tenth conference win.
Santa Ana picked up where they left off in the prior two face-offs with a high-scoring offense. The Dons tallied four runs in the first frame off of two hits and an error from the Chargers infield. The home team quickly retaliated in the bottom half of the first.
Leadoff hitter Jack Burke reached from a walk to get the Chargers first base runner of the day. Luke Honikel followed with a line drive shot over the right field wall to cut the team's deficit in half, 2-4. An inning later, Cypress came within one from a bases loaded fielder's choice to bring in a run.
The Dons responded in the third with two runs to separate themselves from the Chargers comeback. Santa Ana made the score 3-6 from three hits and second error committed by the Cypress defense. In the fourth, the home team managed to score a run from a Honikel RBI base hit. Cade Liefer put the team within one yet again when he smashed a solo home run to lead off the bottom of the fifth.
The visiting bats repeated the trend and led off the top of the sixth with their own solo home run over the right field wall. In the bottom of the eighth, Cypress managed to knot the game at 7-7. Dean Toigo knocked an RBI single to allow Honikel to cross home. With runners at the corners, a fielder's choice dribbler from Isaac Rodriguez tied it to head into the final inning.
The game went into extra innings as both offenses went quiet for the tenth frame. Tanner Gerosa led off the eleventh inning with a walk and Darin Chapman came into pinch run. Off the bench, Chapman stole second to put himself in scoring position. After an intentional walk to Honikel, Albert De La Rosa laced a ball up the middle to have Chapman head first dive into home plate safely. Cypress avoided the sweep from Santa Ana and won their tenth conference game.
Center fielder Honikel had a successful day at the plate as he went 3-4 with two runs scored and knocked in three RBI. Toigo also had a three-hit game as he knocked in one run. De La Rosa came up clutch in the eleventh frame with his walk-off RBI hit. Connor Wylde started the game with his three frames pitched and struck out two. Josh Landry delivered five innings of relief, only allowed one run and struck out two. Logan Groff came in for the final two pressure innings and did not allow a run and struck out one. The Chargers collected their 24th overall victory and tenth Orange Empire Conference win.
UP NEXT: Cypress will begin their final conference series of the season against Orange Coast College. The Chargers will host the Pirates on Tuesday, April 25th. First pitch will be at 2pm.
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