SANTA ANA, Calif. - In a matchup between the top two teams in Southern California, the No. 1 ranked Santa Ana College Baseball team won two of three against the No. 2 Cypress Chargers in their first Orange Empire Conference series of the season.
Brady Schrank welcomed Cypress to OEC play in game one with a dominant performance on the mound. The redshirt freshman struck out nine Chargers and gave up just two hits in seven innings of work.
Sophomore right hander CJ Brown then closed the door, striking out two in a couple of scoreless innings.
Offensively, it was sophomore center fielder Jimmy De Anda who caused havoc on the bases throughout the game. The speedy leadoff hitter went 1-for-3 on the day but drew two walks and scored three runs for the Dons.
Christian Altamirano and Michael Rocha took advantage of hitting in the two and three spots in the lineup and came up with a combined two hits and three runs batted in.
SAC also saw Matthew Dobson and Kian Sanchez pitch in with a hit and an RBI each while Robert Linares drove in a run on a pinch hit sacrifice fly.
In game two, the Chargers responded in a big way. After eight innings of play, Cypress found themselves up 11-0, making game one look like a fluke.
But the Dons had something to say in the final inning, scoring nine runs and forcing the Chargers to use their best arms to get out of trouble and win the game.
Game three was a back and forth affair as the teams found themselves deadlocked at 4-4 going into the bottom of the fifth inning.
Thomas Williams drove home the go ahead run, and his fourth of the day, with a sacrifice fly before Jake Long brought home one more with a single to first to give SAC a two run lead.
The Dons held the Chargers scoreless the rest of the way while adding a few more in the eighth inning to secure their 16th win of the year.
Jaxton Andeel improved to 4-1 on the season with four strikeouts over 6 ⅓ innings. The sophomore lefty gave up just four in a solid performance for the Dons.
The ball was then handed to Joey Iglesias, who shut down the Charger offense for the final 2 ⅔ innings to drop his ERA to 2.66 on the year.
Santa Ana will now get ready to host Irvine Valley on Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. in another OEC matchup.
