Cypress Knocks Off Santa Ana, Stays Alive in Race

The door remains open for Cypress.

The Chargers kept alive their slim Orange Empire Conference baseball title hopes Saturday, rallying for an 8-3 victory over Santa Ana at Cypress.

First baseman Jeff Ruziecki homered and reliever Robert Peelle (1-0) shut down Santa Ana’s offense when it counted most.

Cypress stayed in contention for a share of the title. The Chargers (31-8, 14-7) are 2 1/2 games back and must win their final three games and Santa Ana (31-6-1, 17-5), which already has clinched a share of the title, must lose its remaining two.

Peelle relieved starter Danny Ellis, who had control problems during his four-inning stint, with no outs in the fifth after Ellis hit C.J. Wilson and Tony Calderon to open the inning.

Peelle got Santa Ana’s Tony Alcantar on a line drive to short and struck out Nick Harvey before retiring Aaron Escobedo on a force play to end the threat.

“He stepped it up,” Cypress Coach Scott Pickler said of Peelle, a 6-foot-5 sophomore. “He came in and did a good job. But things like that always happen in this league.”

Cypress erased a 1-0 Santa Ana lead in the bottom of the first on an RBI single by Benny Francisco and an RBI double by Matt Colin with no outs. Francisco scored when Ruziecki grounded into a double play to give Cypress a 3-1 lead.

After the Chargers scored a run in the second for a 4-1 advantage, Santa Ana scored two runs in the third to make it 4-3.

But Cypress broke the game open with a run in the third and two more in the sixth, capped by Ruziecki’s solo home run to right.

“We didn’t play well,” Santa Ana Coach Don Sneddon said. “They hit the ball and we didn’t. We had our chances, but we didn’t take advantage of them.”