Santa Ana Gets Victory Under Difficult Circumstances

Santa Ana, despite the death of longtime team supporter Max Senf earlier in the day, beat Cypress, 8-4, in an Orange Empire Conference baseball game Sunday at Cypress.

Senf died of congestive heart failure Sunday morning at St. Joseph Hospital, said Santa Ana Coach Don Sneddon. Sneddon was unsure of Senf’s age.

Senf was a family friend of former Santa Ana player and assistant Bob Mellano, who played for the Dons in 1982 and 1983. After Mellano moved on to Cal State Fullerton, Senf kept coming to games at Santa Ana and eventually had a chair in the dugout.

Sneddon included a photo of Senf in the media guide this season, calling him the director of motivation and moral. Senf witnessed the Dons’ three state titles.

“He sort of adopted us,” Sneddon said. “This was a very sad day for all of us. Because we were rained out [Saturday] I got to spend about three hours with him at the hospital.”

Al Rodgers had two singles and drove in four runs for Santa Ana (23-5, 10-5). Gabe Gerhardt had his eighth home run for Cypress (14-13, 6-7).

In other conference games:

Golden West 14, Orange Coast 4--Eric Albright and Casey Flanigan each drove in two runs for host Golden West (14-11, 7-8), which scored six runs each in the second and third innings.

Adam Peters (4-0) pitched seven innings for the victory.

Riverside 7, Fullerton 6 (10 innings)--Host Riverside (20-6, 9-4) tied it on a passed ball in the ninth and won it on an error in the 10th. Ernesto Jaime and Mike McCue had doubles and Brandon Carter had three hits for Fullerton (12-13, 4-9).