Community College State Baseball Tournament : No. 1 Rancho Santiago, a 15-5 Winner, Takes Big Step Toward Title

Rancho Santiago College moved within a victory of the state title Saturday with a 15-5 victory over Sacramento City in front of about 600 fans at UC Irvine.

The Dons (39-7) looked much like the No. 1-ranked team in the state, which they have been all season.

Willie Navarrette’s pitching was solid, and the hitting and defense were equally as effective.

Navarrette, a freshman left-hander, allowed eight hits as he improved to 11-0.

“You really can’t fault anything we did today,” said Don Sneddon, Rancho Santiago coach. “Our defense made the plays, our hitters came through the entire game and Willie (Navarrette) pitched very well. It was all there. At this point there really isn’t too much to complain about.”

Rancho Santiago will send David Tellers (11-1), a sophomore right-hander, in the first game at noon today against Sacramento City, which would need to win two games for the state championship.

Sacramento City defeated Cerritos Saturday night, 8-4, to earn a chance at the title.

This is the second time in three seasons Rancho Santiago has gone into the final day of the state tournament needing only one victory to win the title.

In 1986, College of the Canyons defeated Rancho Santiago twice to win it. Cerritos, the defending state champions, swept Sacramento City twice on the final day last season for the title.

Rancho Santiago had 17 hits, including 4 from Rich Gonzales and Kraig Washington and three from Bobby Hamelin.

Rancho Santiago scored a run in the second on an RBI single by Mike Gonzales but took control with five runs in the third.

Ed Luna was hit by a pitch to open the inning, and then Washington followed with an infield single. Nick Santa Cruz bunted to advance the runners. With runners on second and third and one out, Sacramento elected to pitch to Hamelin, and he lined a double off the top of the left-center-field fence for his 99th and 100th RBIs of the season. He had an RBI single in the fifth to push his season and state-record total to 101 in 46 games.

Rich Gonzales singled home Hamelin, Todd Lloyd added an infield single and Joey Townsend doubled home two more runs as Rancho Santiago led, 6-0.

Rich Gonzales had a team-high five RBIs.

“We played a great team playing at its best,” said Jerry Weinstein, Sacramento City coach. “It wasn’t that we did anything poorly, they just played very well.”

Rancho Santiago added two runs in the fourth, four in the fifth and two more in the sixth to take a 14-2 lead.

Rich Gonzales singled in two runs in the fourth and fifth and Washington singled in two runs in the sixth.

Dusty Madsen hit a bases-empty home run in the eighth off Navarrette.

Rancho Santiago, which hit 57 home runs before the tournament, has not hit a home run in 20 tournament innings.

Todd James (5-1) lasted 2 innings to take the loss.

In other tournament games:

Cerritos 11, De Anza 10--Cerritos rallied for two runs in the seventh and three in the eighth for the victory. De Anza (35-16) lost to Rancho Santiago early Saturday morning and had to come back and play the 11 a.m. game.

Sacramento City 8, Cerritos 4--Sacramento City took advantage of eight errors to score five unearned runs in the victory, which advances the Panthers to the championship game for the second consecutive season.

Sacramento City scored three times in the second inning on an RBI single by Bill Silvan and a two-run triple by Frank Santangelo. Santangelo’s hit came after pitcher Brian Griego committed a two-out throwing error.

Sacramento City added three more in the fourth.