SANTA ANA COLLEGE UPDATE: Baseball team wins and scholar athletes honored

Santa Ana College’s baseball team celebrates a win. (Photo courtesy Santa Ana College sports information)

Cole Samuels picked up his second win of the season as the Santa Ana baseball team cruised to a 15-3 win over Oxnard College on Saturday.

Samuels got the start and went six complete innings with eight strikeouts and just two earned runs. In three appearances, the freshman right-hander from JSerra has only given up five runs while striking out 15 batters.

The Dons gave him a big cushion in the first inning, as they batted around to score seven runs right out of the gate.

Oxnard countered with two runs in the top of the second but couldn’t keep up with the high-powered Santa Ana offense throughout the game. SAC added three more runs before exploding for another five runs in the sixth inning.

Austin Bartlett continued to produce with another three hit performance to go with five runs batted in. James William collected three hits himself with three runs batted in. Derek Sims and Garet Crenshaw both had solid days to combine for four hits and five RBI to help Santa Ana pull away.

SANTA ANA COLLEGE HONORS SCHOLAR ATHLETES

The Santa Ana College Kinesiology and Athletics Department acknowledged all 79 of its scholar-athletes at half time of the men’s basketball game Friday.

In order to receive the scholar-athlete honor, these individuals had to maintain a 3.0 GPA in 12 or more units through the 2018 fall semester.

To cap the event, James Williams (baseball), Leyna Wood (women’s soccer) and Lauryn Wood (women’s soccer) were named 2019-20 Santa Ana College Scholar-Athletes of the Year.

Williams led Santa Ana baseball in both hits and walks in 2019 while racking up 32 RBI to earn All-OEC second team honors and was recently named a Preseason All-American. This season, he has picked up right where he started, hitting .405 with 13 runs batted in through nine games.

Leyna Wood put up huge numbers this season and was rewarded as the Orange Empire Conference coaches voted her as the OEC 2019 MVP. Leyna finished the year with 24 goals, eight more than anyone else in the OEC, and six assists. The forward also was named to the CCCAA All-State team.

And Lauryn Wood had another great year as she recorded two goals to go along with six assists on the season and was named to the CCCAA All-Regional and the All-Orange Empire Conference first teams.  

The twins helped secure a playoff berth for the Dons, marking the first time the program has done such since 2009.

These three scholar-athletes will receive a $1,500 scholarship funded by the Santa Ana College Athletic Hall of Fame along with at least three other Santa Ana scholar-athletes to be named later this year.

SANTA ANA PITCHER PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Emily Rosas of Santa Ana College was named the 3CFCA week one pitcher of the week. Rosas is 4-0 with a 2.18 ERA. The sophomore from Villa Park threw the majority of a combined no-hitter against Citrus on Jan. 31.

-Courtesy Santa Ana College sports information