April 9, 2009 - Boxscore
Dons Avenge Early Loss to Mt. San Antonio College

SANTA ANA, CA - The Santa Ana College (SAC) baseball team defeated visiting Mt. San Antonio College 15-4 in the final game of the Hornet Hardball Classic. The win improves the Dons to 25-9 while Mt. SAC falls to 19-13 after the loss.

The Mounties grabbed an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Michael Newell led the game off with a double down the left field line. After advancing to third on a sacrifice bunt he scored on a a RBI-groundout by Bryan Nicholson.

The Dons answered quickly in the bottom half of the inning. Marcus Piazzisi led the first off with a walk followed by four straight singles by Matt Hart, Chris Miller, Derek Eligio and Stephen Gonzalez.

Piazzisi scored on Miller's single, Miller scored on Eligio's single and Eligio scored on Gonzalez' single to put the Dons up 3-1.

SAC continued to roll offensively in the second started by a one-out double by Piazzisi followed by a two-run home run by Hart. Eligio later hit a two-out single followed by another two-run home run, this time by Gonzalez.

The Dons added five more runs in the third as Julian Duran led the inning off with a single and moved to second when TJ Yasuhara was hit by a pitch. Piazzisi moved both runners over when he reached on an error.

Hart cleared the bases with a double to left field, he later scored on Eligio's RBI-double to left field. Eligio scored the final run of the inning when he advanced to third and scored on back-to-back wild pitches.

Duran led the fourth inning off with another single and advanced to second on Yasuhara's single. Piazzisi advanced both runners with a single before Hart singled Duran in for his sixth RBI of the game. Miller followed with a single through the middle of the infield scoring Yasuhara.

The Dons final run came in the fifth inning when James Davis reached on a fielder's choice. Nick Benvenuto came in to run for Davis and scored on a RBI-single by Piazzisi who had an at bat in each of the first five innings along with Hart.

The Mounties scores came in the fourth and ninth inning. Shane Youngdale singled in Nicholson in the fourth and Newell singled in Youngdale and Tettleton in the ninth.

Christian Meza improved to 8-0 on the season as he scattered four hits in six innings of work. He allowed two runs with four strikeouts and no walks. Chris Drossel suffered the loss as he wasn't able to get out of the second inning, he allowed six runs on seven hits as he fell to 1-4.

Next: Santa Ana at Golden West, Tuesday, April 14 at 2:00 p.m.