Facing a very strong Spartans team stacked with NCAA D1 recruits, the Dons came up short on a beautiful day in Lathrop CA. At the beautiful multi-million dollar facility, Michael Castelli retired the first 6 Spartans he faced, while the Dons managed 5 baserunners in the first 2 innings vs DSL’s USC committed pitcher, Eli Gennis. Unfortunately the Dons came up empty in both innings, stranding 5. In the 3rd and 4th innings DSL started to pull away thanks in part to some plays that just didn’t break our way, and good strong hitting , especially from their D1 committed players. The Dons were hoping for more but managed 2 runs to keep it close (5-2), thanks to hits by White and Hutchingson, and walks by Heyman and Cusamano.
Montgomery and Heyman relieved to pitch 2 scoreless innings (2Ks, 0 hits hits) and keep the game close until the 7th. In the bottom of the 7th, the Dons threatened, scoring 2 on Bergman’s line drive single and White’s 2 run bomb to right field. The rally continued with a long triple by Hutchingson and a walk to McPhail. So the Dons brought the tying run to the plate but couldn’t get any closer as the 5th DSL pitcher got the job done. In the end, the 32 man Spartan team was too deep, but the Dons showed they could give them a good game, despite being one of the top ranked teams in CA (1st in NCS D1, and #30 in CA with an 8 game win streak).
Up next for the Dons, a 3 game series vs Campolindo, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday (Games are away, home, and away respectively)