The Dons are hot! The boys took on the highly rated Foothill High School Falcons before a lively crowd at Ken Souza Field on Wednesday. Henry Souza took the mound for the second time this year and did his grandfather’s memory proud with an outstanding performance. Henry took the ball and completely shut down a powerful lineup in short order. He went a tidy 5 innings, giving up no hits, no runs and 2 walks, while throwing only 53 pitches in his outing.

He was relieved by Peter Thorn in the 6 th inning. “Rubber arm” Thorn made his 5 th appearance of the year in 6 games. He went two innings and gave up no runs. Of course there was a little drama in 6 th when Foothill managed 2 hits off of Thorn to put a couple of runners on the base paths. Peter managed to coax a well hit grounder to second baseman Nikko Woodson, who made a sweet turn to James Stadt for a force at second and an eventual double play to get out of the jam.

He finished the 7 th inning without incident and the Dons registered an impressive 3-0 victory, in a quick 1 hour and 26 minute ballgame.

The Acalanes pitching staff and defense have been outstanding. Pitchers Henry Souza, Mason Zirkel,Tyson Bates, Sully Bailey and Peter Thorn have collectively pitched 21 innings without giving up an earned run over the past 3 games. The team ERA for the season is a solid 2.66.

The defense recorded another errorless game. Great pitching and great defense have the Dons on a 3 game winning streak with wins in 4 of their last 5 games.

Let’s not forget about the offense though! The Dons bats got it going in the 2 nd inning against another D1 college committed pitcher. Nico O’Rourke started the inning and reached on an error by the left fielder, before Mason Michlitsch laid down a nice sacrifice bunt to move Nico to second. Sammy Lee singled to center to move Nico to 3 rd . Red hot hitting, Andrew Habas singled to left to score O’Rourke and got the Dons on the board with a 1-0 lead.

Nikko Woodson followed with a sharp line drive single to right field to score to score Sammy. Now it was Coach Hornsby’s turn. He called for a safety squeeze and James Stadt executed it perfectly to score Habas and give the boys a 3-0 lead.

That is all the scoring that the team needed. The pitching and defense took it from there. The win
improved the Dons record to 4-2, with games ahead against Vacaville, Liberty, Pittsburg and Berkeley before league play starts.

It was a great day to be an Acalanes Don. Pitching and Defense Rule!
Go Dons!