Santa Ana, Cypress Open With One Berth on the Line

Santa Ana and Cypress, which have combined for six of the last nine community college state baseball titles, continue their drives for another today in the second round of the Southern California Regional playoffs at Santa Ana College.

With just one berth in the state tournament to be filled from the four-team regional, only one of them can prolong the quest beyond this weekend.

Santa Ana, the top-seeded team in Southern California, opens the double-elimination regional against L.A. Pierce at 3 p.m. Cypress, seeded No. 4, plays East L.A. at 11 a.m.

Santa Ana (34-7) has lost only one home game, when East L.A. scored eight runs in the ninth for an 18-17 victory.

“At this point in the season, it’s not based on how many wins you have,” said Santa Ana Coach Don Sneddon, who led teams to state titles in 1993, ’95 and ’96. “It’s a tournament and it’s about who gets hot over the weekend.”

Cypress, which won state titles in ‘91, ’94 and ‘97, was runner-up to Sacramento in the state finals last year. The Chargers (34-10) are led by three freshmen who were All-Orange Empire Conference selections--Ryan Hubbard, Kevin Snapp and Ray Aguilar.

C.J. Wilson, the conference player of the year, and all-conference selections Tony Calderon, Carlos Pasillas and Jeremy Weinberg lead Santa Ana.