Community College Baseball : Rancho Santiago Finishes Sweep For First-Round

Two weeks ago, Don Sneddon, Rancho Santiago College baseball coach, was worried.

His team had lost 3 of 4 games going into Orange Empire Conference play.

But the Dons overpowered Saddleback, 26-10, Saturday at Saddleback to complete an impressive first-round sweep.

Rancho Santiago, the top-ranked team in Southern California, is 5-0 in conference and 20-3 overall.

The Dons have outscored conference opponents, 57-25, in the first 5 games of a 20-game conference schedule.

Rancho Santiago had a season-high 21 hits Saturday and was helped by 9 Saddleback errors, which led to 9 unearned runs.

Every Don who had an at-bat scored a run. Three players had three hits, four had two hits and three had four RBIs.

Don Robertson had three hits and four RBIs, including a three-run home run in the ninth as Rancho Santiago scored seven runs off Eric Patten, the fifth Saddleback pitcher.

Dean Martinez (2-3) started for Saddleback and trailed only 2-0 after three innings. Martinez gave up four runs in the fourth inning and three in the fifth, including a two-run home run by Nick Santa Cruz.

Santa Cruz had two hits, scored four runs and drove in four more. Mike Gonzales had two hits and four RBIs.

Bryne Laggett replaced Martinez in the sixth and gave up eight runs on seven hits, including a two-run single by Santa Cruz and a two-run double by Bobby Hamelin, in one-third of an inning.

Saddleback (12-12, 2-3) came back with six runs in the sixth on a three-run home run by Jeff Walters, RBI singles by Jason Nigro and Donny Harrell and a sacrifice fly by Nick Nikolenko.

Matt Lundin and Bill Lasher also hit home runs for Saddleback, which had 13 hits.

In other Orange Empire Conference games:

Orange Coast 7, Citrus 4--Orange Coast (17-11-1, 2-3) scored four runs in the seventh to break open a 2-2 game and added an insurance run in the ninth to defeat host Citrus. Derek Dehdashtian had a two-run single to key OCC’s seventh inning. Mike Misuraca had four RBIs for the Pirates. Sam Colarusso (4-2) had seven strikeouts and scattered seven hits and four walks for the complete-game victory.

Cypress 4, Riverside 0--Rich Lodding (4-1) of Cypress struck out four and gave up four hits in 6 innings for the victory over host Riverside (1-4 in conference). Tim Churchill and Jason Friedman each went 2 for 4 for Cypress (4-1 in conference).

In the South Coast Conference:

Long Beach 7, Golden West 2--Brian Ferm gave up eight hits and struck out five for the victory at Long Beach. Long Beach scored three runs in the fifth and two in the sixth. Tom Thobe (4-2) gave up nine hits and struck out four in six innings for Golden West (12-9, 3-3).

Fullerton 19, Pasadena 15--Fullerton was ahead, 19-9, and held on despite host Pasadena’s six-run ninth-inning rally. Fullerton led, 12-3, after six innings. Scott Einhorn hit a grand slam in the second inning for Fullerton, and teammate Rod Klopfer hit a two-run home run in the sixth.