Sacramento Ends Santa Ana’s Run

Santa Ana pitcher Michael Natalie recovered from a rocky second inning but the Dons couldn’t as they lost to Sacramento, 11-6, in an elimination game Sunday night at the state baseball tournament.

Sacramento, the defending state champion, moves to the title game at 11 a.m. today against Cypress. The Panthers (40-7-1) need two victories to repeat.

The loss ends a great postseason run for Santa Ana (33-20), which became the first fifth-place team to reach the state tournament, which is in its 50th year.

“These guys were overachievers,” Santa Ana Coach Don Sneddon said of his team. “They knocked off some very good teams to get here but we wanted more.”

Natalie, a sophomore right-hander, gave up six hits and six runs in the third inning as Sacramento took a 7-3 lead. But Natalie (8-8) was stellar after the third.

He retired 10 of 11 at one point and also helped pull off an impressive trick play.

Sacramento had two runners on in the seventh when a 2-2 pitch to Paul Gallegos got past catcher Christian Popoff and the runners moved up. Popoff then stood up and signaled for an intentional walk but then quickly slid back into his normal position as Natalie buzzed a fastball over the plate for a called strike three as a confused Gallegos watched helplessly. Right-fielder Dan Young went well into foul territory to catch a foul ball to end the inning.

Natalie pitched eight-plus innings and gave up 12 hits, but only three after the third inning. He also had 10 strikeouts.

Young hit a home run in second and Popoff hit a two-run homer in the fourth to cut Sacramento’s lead to 7-5. Joe Urban had a sacrifice fly in the seventh but Sacramento finally scored again, getting four in the ninth, all with two outs.