Santa Ana College’s baseball team won the conference tournament. (Photo courtesy Santa Ana College Sports Information).
Santa Ana College’s baseball team is out to bring home the fifth state title in school history this weekend in the 3C2A State Championships at the Great Park in Irvine.
It’s the first time the event has been held at the Great Park and Guy Lemmon’s Ryan Lemmon Foundation and the OC Riptide are co-sponsoring.
Coach Tom Nilles will lead the Dons into the state final for the third time in four years. Santa Ana College (40-6-1) is seeded second in the South and will face the North’s No. 1 seed Ohlone Saturday at 6 p.m.
In the first game Saturday, Southern California’s top seed Palomar faces the North’s No. 2 seed Feather River at noon.
The double elimination tournament continues Sunday and wraps up Monday with at least one game scheduled for 11 a.m.
Santa Ana College powered through the Orange Empire Conference schedule to win the conference tournament. The Dons offense is powerful and leads the state in hits, walks, slugging percentage and extra base hits.
Santa Ana College is also in the top three in the state in RBI and home runs.
“Obviously, our offense has been pretty good, it’s helped carry us,” Nilles said. “I think the lineup is pretty deep one through nine and you never kind of know where the damage is going to come and all those guys have proved to be pretty good hitters. We play pretty good defense, the left side of our defense is coming back, they’re both pre-season All-Americans and both have had pretty good years.
“Our second baseman {Aiden} Marquez (Pacifica) came in more bat first and really got the defense going and kind of anchoring there with {Ben} Melendrez over at first base, that guy is one of the best defensive first basemen I’ve had the pleasure of coaching.
“On the pitching side, the three starters have been fantastic and our bullpen has been able to come in and lock things down and I’m looking forward to watching those guys work again. {Johnny} Morales and {Adrian} Villegas, {Matthew} Solorzano and {Collin} Galvin have kind of been carrying a big part of the load and {Bruno} Banuelos (Segerstrom) has been with us a few years.”
Former Beckman ace Zach Ireland is also a key part of the pitching staff along with Josh Rodriguez and Andrew Phillips.
“We’ve had some guys who have been to this thing before,” Nilles said.
The team includes conference MVP Ken Tomitaka (Beckman High School) and Division 1 transfers Nikko Paoletto and Marquez.
Every Santa Ana College starter is batting more than .320 while seven players have hit at least seven home runs.
Nilles has plenty of respect for the Dons first-round opponent Saturday.
“They’re good …. they’ve been really good for a long period of time,” Nilles said. “I think the guy we’re going to see is a pretty good pitcher. We will see if we can execute pitches in big spots and make life tough for them. I think it’s going to be a fun game to watch.”
Other players from Orange County high schools on the Santa Ana College team include Nathaniel Williams, Ocean View; Sonnt Rios, Anaheim; Jack Mueller, Foothill; Treson Arita, Mater Dei; Garret Allen, Yorba Linda; Jagger Snitko, Beckman; Adrian Villegas, Segerstrom; JP Sova, Canyon; Tyler Sandhu, Tustin; Braedon Hobson, Edison; Morales, Pacifica; Sean Kassawara, Los Alamitos; Jackson Haney, Crean Lutheran; Colin Galvin, Servite; Travis Bergmann, Kennedy; AJ Frausto and Jack Fishel, El Dorado; Isaiah Kapur, Beckman; Andrew Phillips, Foothill; Solorzano, Fountain Valley and Austin Kirkwood and Lucas Raya, El Dorado.
Schedule
Saturday: Palomar vs. Feather River, noon; Ohlone vs. Santa Ana College, 6 p.m.
Sunday: Games TBA
Monday: 11 a.m., if neccessary game 45 minutes after first game.
Tickets
Prices are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and youth. Youth players (four to a group) are admitted free with one adult paid admission. Tickets may be purchased on the day of the games.
Source: Santa Ana College sports information
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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