Huntington Beach, Calif. - After almost 13 months to the day, Golden West baseball took to Hoover Field for the 2021 season opener.
Golden West mounted a late game rally in the eighth and ninth inning but it wasn't enough as they fell to Santa Ana, 8-7. Steven Casas got Golden West on the board in the bottom half of the third inning with an RBI single that plated Sebastian Orduno to cut the Dons lead to 4-1. The offense just couldn't find their rythym through the middle part of opener as they scattered three hits until the eighth inning.
They got the Dons to go to the bullpen and took advantage of five walks in the eighth inning to cut the lead to 8-5 heading into the final frame. In the ninth, the offense got started with a Logan Gallina single who then advanced on a one out walk to Samio Uze to put runners on second and third base. The next batter, Joe Yost, popped out softly to the first baseman for the second out. First year head coach, Andrew Ramos than turned to his bench for pinch hitter Evan Manzo to keep the game going. Manzo hit a RBI single up the middle to score Gallina and move Uze who walked in his at bat to third. Lead off hitter Julian Boyd would then smack a RBI single of his own to make it a one run ball game with the tying run on second. Cole Andavolgyi couldn't connect with the ball in his final at bat, as he struck out swinging to end the game.
Starter Caleb Turner gets the loss after throwing five innings while giving up three earned runs and striking out six Dons.
NEXT: Golden West will host Santa Ana on Thursday, April 15th for a 2pm start.