No Question, Santa Ana Is Out
When Santa Ana lost its opening playoff game to Cuesta, the question was: What if?
But when Cuesta ended Santa Ana’s season with a 12-3 victory on Saturday, the question was: What happened?
Santa Ana entered the second round of the playoffs as the top-seeded team in Southern California but lost two straight to No. 4 Cuesta (36-10), which advances to the state tournament along with Riverside, which beat Los Angeles Harbor, 14-4, also Saturday.
Santa Ana, the Orange Empire Conference champion, ended the season at 37-12. The Dons lost on Friday, 5-3, but had chances to get back in the game in the late innings.
On Saturday, Cuesta took a 7-3 lead with a six-run fourth and the Cougars were never threatened.
Jason Kelly became the second consecutive Cuesta left-hander to pitch a complete game against Santa Ana. Kelly (10-0) pitched a five-hitter, walked six and didn’t give up a run in the final five innings.
Santa Ana outscored playoff opponents, 52-20, in the five first-round games.
“I can’t remember the last time we had pitchers throw back-to-back complete games against us,” Santa Ana Coach Don Sneddon said. “But you have to give them credit; we didn’t hit all weekend.”
Cuesta’s Kevin Miller, who like Kelly changed speeds well, was the winning pitcher in Friday’s game and Miller and his brother Chris did plenty of damage Saturday with their bats.
Kevin Miller had four hits and scored four runs and Chris Miller, who has signed to play at UC Irvine next season, had a three-run home run in the eighth inning. It was the ninth home run of the season for Chris Miller.
Chris Van Camp had two hits and also made a fine running catch for Santa Ana, which looked solid early. Santa Ana scored in the third on an RBI groundout by Tony Alcantar and later when Alcantar got caught in a rundown, enabling David Fischer to score.
Daniel Franklin added an RBI single in the fourth to put Santa Ana ahead, 3-1.
But Cuesta, the designated home team, took control in the bottom of the fourth. The Cougars scored six times with the help of a two-run double by Chris Klemm (Servite High) that chased Santa Ana starter and loser Dustin Wagoner (7-2).