Dons Defeat Golden West but Lose Conference Title
The Dons five-year run as the Orange Empire Conference Champions came to an end minutes after their 12-3 win over Golden West College. The title was claimed by Orange Coast College who defeated Irvine Valley College 7-2 to end the Dons reign.
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
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0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 2 |
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1 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 12 | 14 | 2 |
The Dons five-year run as the Orange Empire Conference Champions came to an end minutes after their 12-3 win over Golden West College. The title was claimed by Orange Coast College who defeated Irvine Valley College 7-2 to end the Dons reign.
The Dons (25-14, 15-5) did, however, extend their winning streak to 10 games with the win over the Rustler (18-16-1, 9-11). The win came behind a strong pitching performance by Bruce Tolliver.
Tolliver opened the game with 4.1 perfect innings while his offense staked him to an early 12-0 lead. The first baserunner against Tolliver came on a one-out walk in the fifth inning. He surrendered his first hit of the game two batters later.
The Rustlers eventually managed three runs against Tolliver, all in the sixth inning. But it was too little too late as he improved to 4-1 on the season. Tolliver's final line was three runs on five hits in 6.1 innings of work with five strikeouts.
Offensively, the Dons were hot early as they pushed 12 runs across in the first three innings, highlighted by a seven run third. Konnor Armijo and Dylan Jones led the offensive onslaught with three RBI apiece.
JB Bryant and Tyler Madrid each had two RBI while Kyle Kuck and Geoff Schuller accounted for the other two runs driven in.
The Dons wrap up the regular season on Thursday as they look to complete the sweep of the Rustlers at Golden West College.
