Santa Barbara City College struck first for the second straight day on Sunday but Santa Ana had too much firepower and came back to beat the visiting Vaqueros 7-2 in the Southern Cal Regional softball playoffs.
Santa Ana, the No. 7 seed, won the best-of-3 series 2-0 and moves into the Super Regional next weekend. SBCC finishes the best season in school history with a 31-7 record.
Santa Barbara, which won its first WSC Gold Division title with a 16-2 mark, dropped two straight games for the first time this year. The Dons rallied to win Saturday’s playoff opener 3-2.
“We just couldn’t put anything together this weekend,” said coach Paula Congleton. “It was still a wonderful season with wonderful kids.”
SBCC was designated as the home team for Game 2 of the series.
The Vaqueros went ahead 1-0 in the second on an RBI triple by Lisa Zeitlin that scored Laura Cannon. The Dons (28-14) responded with two in the third and took a 4-1 lead on solo homers by Dayna Douglas in the fourth and sixth frames.
Santa Barbara cut the deficit to 4-2 in the sixth when Laura Cannon reached on a bunt single and scored on double by Carly Smith. Laura Cannon was 2-2 with two runs and Nicole Adair went 2-4.
Santa Ana added three unearned runs in the seventh with the help of three errors.
Sophomore pitcher Kailey Snyder (27-6) gave up four earned runs on 10 hits. Snyder, who ranked No. 2 in the state with 233 strikeouts, didn’t strike out a batter and had only one in two games.
Game 2
Santa Ana …… 002 101 3 — 7 10 2
SBCC ……….… 010 001 0 — 2 7 3
Sepulveda and Hooper; Snyder and Bolanos. W–Sepulveda 8-1. L–Snyder 27-6.
2B–SA: Dowling. SB: Smith. 3B–SB: Zeitlin. HR–SA: Douglas (2), 4th inn., none on; Douglas (3), 6th inn., none on.
