Shaun Hoover hit his 12th home run of the season, but No. 1 San Jacinto took charge early for an 8-3 win over the Blue Dragons in the winner's bracket quarterfinals on May 21, 2010.
	Second baseman Luke Acosta waits for a throw from Dan Klein as a Sac Jac runner steals second base.
	Andrew Dixon slides into second in HCC's second World Series game of 2010.

Quarterfinals
San Jacinto 8, Hutchinson 3
May 31, 2010 - Sam Suplizio Field, Grand Junction, CO

NO. 1 SAN JAC
HANDS BLUE DRAGONS
FIRST WORLD SERIES LOSS

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GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – The 19th-ranked Hutchinson Community College baseball team faced No. 1-ranked San Jacinto-North’s No. 2 pitcher in a winner’s bracket contest of the 2010 NJCAA World Series at Suplizio Field.

San Jac’s Miguel Pena looked all the world like the top-ranked Gators’ No. 1 hurler.

Pena struck out 13 Blue Dragons as San Jacinto defeated Hutchinson 8-3 on Monday, May 31, 2010 at Suplizio Field, handing the Blue Dragons their first World Series loss.

The Blue Dragons (38-23) struck out a season-high 15 times against San Jacinto. Pena struck out 13 in 8 1-3 innings. He gave up just four hits, three runs, two earned runs and walked three. Pena is now 14-1 with 95 strikeouts. He is being projected as a future top-five round draft pick.

“He’s really dominant,” said HCC sophomore Shaun Hoover, who snapped a 13-game streak without a home run by crushing a 3-2 pitch off of Pena to right field for his team-high 12th home run of the season in the second inning. “He threw first-pitch strikes to every batter it seemed. He commanded his fastball and off-speed. Overall, he’s a good pitcher, probably the best we’ve seen.”

The Blue Dragons, who had their season-long seven-game winning streak snapped, fall to 8-2 in the 2010 postseason. HCC was held to its second-lowest hit total of the postseason – Allen County limited the Dragons to three hits in the Overland Park sub-regional opener on May 8.

The Dragons were also held to a postseason low one stolen base, which came from sophomore Luke Acosta in the fifth inning. HCC was 1 of 3 stealing bases and had one runner picked off by Pena.

HCC also committed three defensive errors.

“With opportunities few and far between, we tried to run with everyone on base,” HCC head coach Kyle Crookes said. “I thought we just had to make something happen.”

Sophomore Dan Klein led Hutchinson offensively going 2 for 3 with a run scored and an RBI. Hoover was 1 for 4 and sophomore Mace Krol had the only other hit of the game for HCC.

Jarrett Higgins, Ryan Hornback, Randall Thorpe and Zackry Benson had two hits each to lead San Jacinto’s 12-hit attack. Riley Hornback drove in three runs for the Gators.

Hoover’s home run came with two outs in the second inning to give Hutchinson a 1-0 lead. But San Jacinto used two infield singles, a throwing error, two walks and three wild pitches from starting and losing pitcher Matt Williams (8-2) in a four-run second inning to take charge and lead 4-2 after two innings.

Williams lasted just 2 1-3 innings on Monday night allowing six hits and five earned runs with four walks and one strikeout.

Freshman Morgan Cirbo pitched the final 5 2-3 innings. He tied a season high with four strikeouts and gave up six hits three runs, just two earned, and walked two.

“We won regionals, super regionals going game after game, day after day,” Cirbo said. “We are a scrappy team. When we lost to Johnson County, nobody expected us to come back and win two games against Johnson County. I think we can come back and surprise some people because we are going to be overlooked playing in an elimination game.”

Trailing by four after four innings, the Dragons looked to be starting the comeback. After Acosta walked and stole second, he scored all the way from second on a bunt single by Klein to cut the San Jac lead to 5-2.

Klein scored in the eighth on a throwing error by San Jac shortstop Ryan Burnaman.

But in each inning the Dragons scored – the second, fifth and eighth innings, San Jacinto (50-10) responded with runs in the bottom of each inning.

GAME NOTES – Acosta’s stolen base was the 62nd of his career, breaking the tie for third with teammate Andrew Dixon. Acosta is now two stolen bases shy of passing Tyler Cotten for second place on the HCC career list. … Hoover is now tied for 10th on the single-season home run list with 12 homers. He is tied with Noah Krol, Eli Lapka, A.J. Seaholm and George Waggoner. Hoover now has 16 career home runs, which ties him for 12th on the single-season list with Noah Krol, J.J. Korf and Stewart Hoover. … Krol extended his current hitting streak to eight games and Klein extended his to six games. … Klein threw out two basestealers against San Jacinto. He has thrown out 25 basestealers this season. … HCC turned two double plays in the game.