Community College Baseball : Santa Ana Is Defenseless in Defeat

Don Sneddon wasn’t about to defend his Santa Ana College baseball team on Thursday following the Dons’ 13-4 South Coast Conference loss to Saddleback. After all, the Dons had already proven--and conclusively--that they were defenseless.

Santa Ana, often looking worse in the field than even the Dodgers, made six errors, including three in Saddleback’s eight-run sixth inning when the Gauchos (6-9) turned a 4-3 deficit into an 11-4 lead.

The Dons (8-7 in conference), who dropped into fourth place, have taken some tough losses of late, but this was the toughest. Sneddon chewed out his team for several minutes following the final out, and then continued to let his anger out when he talked to reporters.

“This loss was an embarrassment to the program,” he said. “We are too good a club to make six errors. You can accept a loss when you get beat, but when you lose because you’re a charity organization, something is wrong.

“I’m upset, stymied and have no explanations. You train nine months in order to prevent a breakdown like this from happening, and it still happens . . . “

The scored was tied, 3-3, going into the bottom of fourth inning when Santa Ana’s Pat Longo hit a solo home run. It stayed 4-3 until the sixth when Santa Ana’s defense collapsed behind losing pitcher Gary Pifer (6-3), who last year played for Saddleback.

Todd Inglehart led off the inning with a single and then Don third baseman David Keith made the first error of the inning when he booted Erik Gasner’s ground ball. Longo made error No. 2 when he tried to pick off Inglehart at second base and threw the ball into center field, moving the runners to second and third. Dante Scott singled in one run, and after a walk to Greg DeVolk, Mark Webster tripled to give Saddleback a 7-4 lead.

But the Gauchos--and the Dons’ defense--weren’t through just yet. Bucky Bollinger walked and Steve Nichols followed with RBI single, making it 8-4 with runners at second and third. Sneddon went to the bullpen and brought in Marty Martinez. An out and walk later, Gasner (who homered in the fourth) came up for the second time in the inning and hit a ball right at Santa Ana left fielder Brent Ryhlick, and Ryhlick simply missed it. Three runs scored to make it 11-4, and the game was essentially over.

Winning pitcher David Ward (2-0) was far from overpowering as he gave up four runs and nine hits in his seven innings. He did have two things going for him, though: he had good control (two walks) and his teammates played reasonably good defense.

“We’ve been looking for a No. 2 pitcher, and we’ve found one,” Saddleback Coach Jim Brideweser said.

In other South Coast Conference action:

Cypress 7, Mt. San Antonio 6--Tom Chavez’s fourth-inning sacrifice fly drove in Ed Evans with what turned out to be the winning run as the Chargers (9-6) gained sole possession of third place by beating the Mounties at Walnut.

Evans’ run made it 7-5 in favor of Cypress and winning pitcher Jim Bennet (6-2) allowed only one run the rest of the day. Chris Kocman led Cypress with two hits and two RBIs.

Cerritos 14, Orange Coast 3--The game was tied, 3-3, going into the seventh inning, when the host Falcons (14-1) scored seven runs. Losing pitcher Longo Garcia entered the game in the sixth inning, and gave up six runs on four hits in one inning. Starter Jeff Goettsch had allowed three runs on eight hits in his 5 innings.

The Pirates (7-9, 12-15) scored their first run in the fifth inning when Mark Fryan drove in Paul Ellison, who had doubled. They trailed 3-1 entering the sixth. Dave Roland reached on an error and scored on Gene Roumimper’s triple. Roumimper subsequently came home on Steve Kraiss’ fielder’s choice to tie the game.

Fullerton 25, Compton 6--The Hornets (7-8) hit five homers, starting with a solo shot by Corby Oakes in the second inning at Compton. The Tartars (1-14) trailed by just one run, 2-1, until the third inning when Fullerton’s Craig Repoz and Rodney Clark singled, and Jim Areias followed with a three-run homer. When the third inning ended, Fullerton led, 8-1.

Jeff Oberdank hit a three-run homer in the fifth and Repoz, who was 4 for 4, had a solo homer in the ninth. Darren Nelson and Areias each accounted for four of the Hornets’ 28 hits. Winning pitcher Rob DeYoung (2-1) allowed just two hits in five innings.