Dons make short work of vikings

The Dons took advantage of wild pitches after the Vikings bullpen fell short Friday during the first round of Southern California Regional Finals. / Alex Olivares / el Don

By Vanessa Cortez

The Dons took advantage of four pitching changes and costly errors Friday during the first round of CCCAA Southern Regional Playoffs, defeating Long Beach City College 17-6.

“Unfortunately walks and wild throwing pitches cost us the devastating loss,” Vikings Head Coach Casey Crook said.

In just the second pitch of the game, Viking’s infielder Micheal Thomas smoked a triple to right field that gave them the first lead of the game.

The Dons didn’t hesitate to come back from a 1-0 deficit in the first inning. With the bases loaded in the first inning, Dons Short Stop Garret Brown hit to center field, allowing two runs to score on a catching error. Prior to the two scoring runs, outfielder Ryan Aguilar scored on a wild pitch.

In that same inning, infielder Alex Mascarenas bowled over Vikings catcher Yamel Delgado at home plate, forcing Delgado to take an early exit. Two more runs were scored giving the Dons a 5-1 lead over Long Beach City College Vikings.

The Dons dominated some more, scoring five more runs in the fifth inning with wild pitches and errors. The second and third Long Beach City College pitching change came in the fourth and fifth innings, giving the Dons a 12-4 lead.

“A lot of teams that have come in have always struggled against our staff,” Dons Co-Head Coach Harris said.

Daniel Martinez led the team with four RBI’s. Brown and Troy Baird both recorded three RBI’s, giving the team a total of 12 RBI’s.

Having the bases loaded three times throughout the game, Ryan hit the ball to left field allowing one run to score. First baseman Daniel Martinez hit the ball to center allowing two runs to score in the sixth, giving the Dons the 17-6 lead.

“We did a good job answering back to back runs, and we kept the momentum going,” said Coach Harris.

The Dons play Game 2 in the three-game series Saturday against the Vikings at 11a.m.