FULLERTON FLYING HIGH - SOCAL FINALS PREVIEW

It's been a fun and wild ride for the No. 13 seed Fullerton College baseball team that has elevated its play to another level under head coach Chad Baum.

All the hard work that began last summer has paid dividends as the Hornets are one of four teams still standing in the South (No. 4 Santa Ana, No. 2 Saddleback, and No. 19 College of the Canyons). Incredibly enough, three of those southern squads are from the Orange Empire Conference.

For the North, the four teams in the mix for the Regional Finals are No. 1 Santa Rosa, No. 2 San Joaquin Delta, No. 3 Folsom Lake, and No. 5 Sierra.

FC travels to Santa Ana College this Friday for a three-game series that will determine which team goes to the 3C2A State Tournament to be held at Folsom Lake College May 27-29, where the top two teams from the South battle it out with the top two teams from the North.

Wrapping up the regular season, the Hornets and Dons met three times for an Orange Empire Conference series. Fullerton took game one at home 7-6 in an 11 inning walk-off. At Santa Ana for games two and three, the Dons won 13-9 and 6-4.

Santa Ana ranks 6th in the state for hitting with 535 (.314 team average), while Fullerton is 29th with 441 (.274 team average). For pitching, the Dons are 21st in the state in ERA (4.39) and the Hornets are 25th (4.54). In total, Santa Ana has committed 82 team errors to FC's 60.

Up Next: The No. 13 Hornets head down to No. 4 Santa Ana College on Friday, May 19th for game one of the 3C2A Regional Finals. Game time is at 2:00 pm. Game two will be back at Santa Ana on Saturday, May 20th at 1:00 pm. If needed, game three will be on Sunday, May 21st at noon.

*Photo by Matt Brown