DONS DROP TWO IN FINALS

   With the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Dons pitcher Christian Meza gave up the game-winning hit to Diablo Valley College’s Corey Conflenti, beating Santa Ana College 3-2 in the first game of the State Finals May 23.
   SAC’s first trip to Fresno in a decade ended the next day when the offense was limited to one run against San Joaquin Delta, losing 5-1 and eliminating them from the tournament and ending their season.
   “It’s the earliest I can remember going out. It was disappointing to go out that quickly,” Head Coach Don Sneddon said.
   An offense that averaged more than eight runs a game entering the tournament generated just three runs the entire weekend.
   In the first game, Santa Ana’s two through five hitters in the lineup were a combined 0 for 14.
   Vikings’ pitcher David Hurlbut shut down the Dons’ attack, pitching six scoreless innings before giving up a lead off home run to sophomore Jake Eccles in the seventh.
   “He was the best left hander we faced all season,” Sneddon said.
   Santa Ana pitcher Brian Peacock did all he could to keep his team in the game, throwing 8.1 innings and striking out nine.
   In the elimination game the Dons were hampered as neither Meza, the OEC Pitcher of the Year, or Nick Capito, the team leader in wins with 12 were available to start. Meza had closed the game before and Capito was suffering from soreness in his pitching arm.
   Instead, Santa Ana went with sophomore Daniel Fenwick, the 2007 Southern California Pitcher of the Year, who hadn’t started a game this season.
   “We were looking for lightning in a bottle,” Sneddon said. 
   It did not come as Fenwick gave up three runs on seven hits in just three plus innings.
   But it was the offensive struggles that cost the Dons, as they did not score until the ninth inning when Eccles got a base hit to right field driving in the Dons’ lone run.
  “We didn’t bring the at bats we normally bring. We tried to do too much, probably because it was the state finals,” Eccles said.
   The Dons reached the finals by sweeping
their way through the regional and super
regional playoffs.
   It began by exacting revenge with two wins over Southwestern College, the team that ended their season last year, and finished with a three game sweep at Palomar, defeating the host team twice. The Dons scored 41 runs in that five
game stretch.
   “That’s the way we were supposed to play and we didn’t do it in the state finals,” Eccles said.
  A team that won 12 of its last 13 and an offense that scored double digit runs in 21 games this season, only managed three runs and no wins
in Fresno.
   “It’s the mystery of this game. It can humble you in a hurry,” Sneddon said.
   The Dons completed the season with a 37-13 record, winning a share of the conference championship. They will begin next year with hope of winning their first state title since 1996.