Santa Ana College’s softball team celebrates a victory. (Photo courtesy Santa Ana College sports information)
Santa Ana College’s softball team earned two more wins on Saturday, pushing past LA Mission (2-16) and Moorpark (8-8) in non-conference action.
In game one against LA Mission, the Dons were able to hold on to an early lead to pull out a 4-2 victory.
Brandi Kirkpatrick started it off with a two RBI double to right center field that scored Andrea Uriarte and Airlin Ramirez. Madelyn Holzberg added a double to left center to bring home Kirkpatrick, giving Santa Ana a 3-0 lead after one inning.
The LAMC Eagles chipped away with runs in the third and sixth inning, but it wasn’t enough for a comeback, as the Dons posted one more run to walk away with a 4-2 win.
Kirkpatrick went 2-for-2 with three RBI while picking up the win in the circle after throwing five and a third innings with three strikeouts and just two runs. Emily Rosas  came in for the last inning and two thirds as she recorded her first save of the year.
Santa Ana went up against a tough Moorpark team in its second game of the day. The game was scoreless until the fourth inning when the Dons broke out for one run on a single to left field from Jay Knoefler. SAC added one more run in the fifth as Kirkpatrick executed a squeeze play to bring in Rosas, giving the Dons a 2-0 lead.
But that lead wouldn’t last long, as the Moorpark Raiders battled back with two runs in the sixth inning to tie the game in crunch time.
Following a scoreless bottom of the sixth and top of the seventh, Santa Ana broke the tie with a walk-off double by Ramirez to end the day on a high note and extend its winning streak to five games to win 3-2.
Airilin finished the game with two hits and an RBI while Uriarte and Holzberg also collected a couple hits each.
Rosas went all seven innings for her seventh win of the year as she struck out two and allowed two runs.
SANTA ANA BASEBALL TEAM DEFEATS RIVERSIDE 8-5
Santa Ana’s baseball team (18-3, 3-1) got busy in the sixth inning of an Orange Empire Conference series opener against Riverside City (15-6, 1-3), posting seven runs to pull away from the Tigers and win 8-5.
Cederick Perez led off the inning with a double down the left field line and scored on a single through the right side from Copper Hansen,  who then advanced to third on a throwing error. Derek Sims followed that with a two run shot over the left field fence to give the Dons a 4-1 lead.
Santa Ana continued to rally, scoring four more runs by way of walks, being hit by pitches and a wild pitch.
In the top of the seventh, Riverside responded with four runs to pull within three before the Dons handed the ball to Kyle Hoskins,. who pulled off a seven out save for his eighth of the season.
Josh Haley collected his sixth win as the lefty from Gahr High went six and two third innings with four strikeouts while allowing five runs.
DONS’ BEACH VOLLEYBALL TEAM SPLITS MATCHES
The Dons beach volleyball team split matches over the weekend at Newland courts in Huntington Beach, dropping a close one to Riverside City College and capturing a win against Glendale College.
The No. 2 and No. 3 Don pairs picked up exciting wins against the Riverside Tigers with both games going to three sets, before SAC ultimately dropped the match. No. 2 pair Ally Wardlow and Savannah Brown defeated its opponent 16-21,22-20,15-7. The No. 3 duo, Aubree Macdonald and Myrandah Zepeda won 19-21,21-16,15-9.
The Dons closed out the day sweeping the Glendale Vacqueros with a match score of 5-0. Each pair won convincedly in just two sets as Santa Ana College beat Glendale by an average of 16.2 points.
Santa Ana (2-5) is back in action Friday, March 13 with a 10 a.m. dual against the Irvine Valley Lasers at IVC.
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