May 9, 2009 - Boxscore
Dons Sweep Southwestern to Reach Super Regionals

SANTA ANA, CA - Nearly a year after being eliminated from the playoffs by Southwestern College, the Santa Ana College baseball team returned the favor. The fifth-seeded Dons completed the sweep with a 12-2 victory over Southwestern College to advance to the Super Regionals next weekend at Palomar College.

Derek Eligio set the tone early with a two-out home run in the top of the first inning to give the Dons an early 1-0 lead. In his second at-bat of the game in the third inning, Eligio extended the Dons lead to 2-0 with a RBI-single to centerfield scoring Marcus Piazzisi who drew a lead-off walk.

Jake Eccles led the fourth inning off with a triple off the centerfield wall and later scored when Stephen Gonzalez reached on an error. Gonzalez went on to score on a fielder's choice by TJ Yasuhara putting the Dons up 4-0.

The Dons added two more runs in the fifth with Matt Hart leading the inning off with a double. He advanced to third on a fly ball by Eligio and scored on a sacrifice fly by Kyle Hardman. Jake Eccles followed with a solo home run to extend the lead to 6-0.

Julian Duran got hit by a pitch to lead the sixth inning off and advanced to third when Yasuhara attempted a sacrifice bunt. Duran was safe on the play on a throwing error and Yasuhara, after reaching first on the fielder's choice, advanced to second on another error on the play.

Both Duran and Yasuhara scored in the next at-bat when Piazzisi doubled to left-centerfield. Eligio picked up his third RBI of the game when he singled in Piazzisi from third to put the Dons up 9-0.

The Jaguars two runs both came in the bottom of the seventh inning on back-to-back solo home runs by Travis Taijeron and Ryan Fariss. After allowing the home runs, Brian Peacock came back to retire the next three batters in a row.

The Dons scored their final three runs in the top of the ninth inning. Duran led the inning off with a single to right field followed by Cory Goodchild's two-run pinch-hit home run. Goodchild's blast came on the first pitch he saw. Eccles singled in Efrain Mendoza for the Dons 12th and final run.

Nick Perez came in to pitch the ninth inning in relief of Peacock. Perez allowed a lead-off walk before striking out three batters in a row to end the game.

Peacock improved to 7-2 on the season with the win as he pitched eight innings. Peacock allowed two runs on six hits with eight strikeouts. Eric Krause suffered the loss for Southwestern as he pitched four and two thirds innings allowing six runs on 10 hits.

NEXT: The Dons advance to the Super Regionals with the win and will play Long Beach City College on Friday at Palomar College. The Super Regional is a four-team, double-elimination tournament with the first games on Friday.