Jason WhitacreThe Santa Ana Dons faced off against the Canyon Cougars in an out-of-conference matchup that earned the Dons a 4-3 walk-off win in the 12th inning Tuesday evening.
“One thing I’ll say is the pitching was phenomenal today,” said head coach Tom Nilles, highlighting the multi-inning stretch in which relievers Bruno Banuelos, Jack Fishel and Adrian Villegas held the Cougars at bay during a 3-3 entanglement from the seventh inning and on.
“My job was to come in, throw strikes, and try to hold the lead to zero,” said Banuelos. He handily kept the Cougars away from victory throughout the ninth and 10th innings.
“I love the high-pressure situations, so I’d love to get called in on more of those,” said Banuelos.
Sophomore players Jack Mueller and Ken Tomitaka had big games leading the Dons offensively. “If we go out there and play our own game, there’s no team that can beat us,” said Tomitaka.
Mueller tallied two hits, including a sacrifice fly to score Tomitaka in the fourth inning.
“We’ve got some good bats in the lineup this year, so we just need to keep swinging it and our pitchers need to keep going out there and throwing strikes,” said Mueller.
Fishel took to the mound in the 11th inning in a tense situation, but sat down the side in order with a groundout and two strikeouts, returning to an electrified Dons bench.
In the bottom of the 12th, Tomitaka and Wells stood on second and third with one out after both advancing to scoring position on a wild pitch.
Evan Reiter then took his swing and managed a single straight to center field, giving Wells the green light to run to home plate, after which the Dons stormed the field and ritually doused their teammate with water in celebratory cheer.
The Dons will face the Cougars again this Saturday, at the College of the Canyons at 1 p.m.
“If we make adjustments and do the things that we’re capable of doing in the box, we should win,” said Coach Nilles.
