Cypress Eliminates Santa Ana, 7-4

Cypress College kept its hopes alive for a fourth state baseball championship by defeating top-seeded Santa Ana, 7-4, Saturday in an elimination game of the Southern California playoffs at Santa Ana College.

Cypress (36-11) advanced to today’s regional title game against East Los Angeles at 11 a.m. at Santa Ana. If Cypress wins, a second game between the same teams will follow with the winner advancing to the state tournament.

Cypress’ Danny Ellis pitched a strong seven innings to get the victory, giving up three runs and striking out six with two walks.

Darin Davis hit his fourth home run and two singles to drive in two runs. Nicholas Harvey had a double, single and scored three runs and Justin Gerlach had a single and drove in two runs for the Chargers.

Santa Ana (35-9-1) threatened to make it closer in the eighth inning. Trailing, 7-4, the Dons had runners on first and second when Orange Empire Conference player of the year C.J. Wilson hit a sharp ground ball between second and first. Cypress second baseman Ryan Hubbard made a diving stop and threw out Wilson to end the inning.

Saturday morning, the Chargers defeated Los Angeles Pierce, 10-8, in another elimination game.

Brandon Luna pitched 1 2/3 innings of one-hit relief to pick up his 11th save. Ben Francisco had a home run, double and two RBIs and Chris Klosterman had a double and three RBIs for Cypress.

In another regional game at Santa Ana:

East Los Angeles 13, Santa Ana 0--The Huskies moved within one victory of advancing to the state championships in Fresno behind a dominating pitching performance by freshman left-hander John Hoyos.

Hoyos (9-2), a late-round pick by the New York Mets in last June’s amateur draft, limited the Dons to two hits in seven innings, retiring 16 of the final 18 batters he faced. He walked four and struck out seven.

“An outstanding job in their ballyard,” said East L.A. Coach James Hines. “He just went out there, pitched his [tail] off and said, ‘Here it is, hit it.’ ”

Hoyos pitched with a big lead almost from the start after the Huskies batted around in the first inning, scoring five runs off Santa Ana starter C.J. Wilson. East L.A. knocked Wilson around for 11 runs and 10 hits and four walks in 5 1/3 innings.

Kenny Okamuro’s 11th home run, a solo shot in the fifth, gave East L.A. a 6-0 lead and the Huskies knocked Wilson from the game in the sixth, scoring six more, highlighted by Willie Durazo’s three-run double.

The Huskies (34-12) are now 2-0 against the Dons (35-8-1) at Santa Ana College, the only team to have beaten Santa Ana at home this season.

Fifth-seeded East L.A. (34-12) needs only one victory over Cypress today to advance.

The Huskies will pitch sophomore left-hander Alex Chavez (4-2, 4.69) against the Chargers.