HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. - The Santa Ana College Baseball team returned to action on Tuesday afternoon and picked its first win of the 2021 season by defeating the Golden West Rustlers on the road by a score of 8-7. 

Josh Haley set the table for the Dons with a six inning, eight strikeout performance to give the sophomore ace the victory. 

The SAC offense gave him some room to work right from the start, scoring three runs in the first inning powered by a double from Cedrick Perez and a single by Griffin Selby. Back to back doubles from Derek Sims and Nick Lopez extended the Don lead to 4-0 in the top of the second. 

Golden West got on the board in the bottom of the third with a two out single from Steven Casas to cut the lead to 4-1. But after a few scoreless innings, the Dons got hot again and pushed the lead to 8-1 with four runs in the sixth and seventh innings. 

Right when it looked like the game was just about over the Rustlers began to rally, scoring five runs in the eighth and another two in the ninth. The game came down to the last pitch as GWC had the tying run sitting on second before Dane Baker got out of a jam with a strikeout to earn the first save of his SAC career. 

Offensively, the Dons were led by Perez, who went 2-4 with three RBI's and a walk. Griffin Selby and Garet Crenshaw picked up a couple hits and two RBI's each to get off to a good start for the season. 

Santa Ana and Golden West will continue their series on Thursday at Golden West at 2:00 p.m. They'll finish up the series at Santa Ana College on Friday with a double header starting at 12:00 p.m. 

No fans will be allowed at either venue due to state restrictions.