Paoletto's MVP Power Leads Santa Ana to 3C2A Baseball Title

IRVINE -- The Santa Ana College Dons added to their already-impressive jewelry collection and they did it the hard way, picking up back-to-back wins over Palomar on Day 3 to capture the 2026 3C2A Baseball State Championship on Monday at the Great Park.

After a 19-3 rout over the Comets in Monday's opener, the Dons made it 2-for-2 with a 7-4 victory in the championship nightcap to capture the school's fifth state baseball championship in program history (1993, 1995, 1996, 2023, 2026) and the second title under head coach Tom Nilles.

"I told them yesterday that we've earned the right to get to this day today," Nilles said. "Our whole job was to win one game, and we showed up in the morning and got it done. I was disappointed in our approaches at the plate early yesterday (in a 4-3 loss to Palomar on Sunday) and we managed to clean some things up. We know we can hit so we made sure to keep things close and let our bats do what they do. Win that first one, earn the right for one more game and see what happens from there."

What happened was the Dons (44-7-1) rallied from an early 4-1 deficit with five runs over the middle frames, using the hot bat of State Tournament MVP, Nikko Paoletto, and the resilient right arm of Andrew Phillips to carry the team across the finish line for good.

Paoletto, who went 11-for-19 with four home runs to earn tourney MVP honors, went 2-for-2 with three runs scored, a HR and two RBI in the championship-clinching win, anchoring an offense that scored seven times on 14 hits after delivering 19 runs on 18 hits in the early game.

"We knew we couldn't play the second nine innings without take care of business in the first nine innings, so that was our group mindset going into today," Paoletto said. "We put some great at-bats together and lots of guys stepped for us in both games today. I've been waiting my whole life for moments like this today. I'm glad I was able to take this opportunity when it was presented to me, and I'm just so blessed to be a part of this team."

Palomar (43-8) tried to bounce back from the blowout loss in the early afternoon and came out strong. Led by one of the top players in the state, Elijah Stephens, the Comets scored four runs over the first three innings, with Stephens slugging a pair of home runs over that span. The 6-foot-7 slugger/pitcher finished his 2026 campaign batting .469 (fourth in the state) while topping the state with 18 home runs and 82 RBI.

But the Dons roared back, scoring a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth to make it 4-3 before Paoletto put his team up for good in the bottom of the fifth, smacking a two-run home run to right-center to put SAC up 5-4.

Evan Reiter came through with an RBI-single in the sixth to make it 6-4 before Paoletto put an appropriate finish to the Dons' magical afternoon, scoring the final run of his team's season on a balk in the bottom of the seventh.

Phillips (9-0) picked up the win in relief for the Dons. After earning the win on Saturday against Ohlone, he bounced back and held the Comets scoreless over the final 6.1 innings on just four hits, walking two and striking out seven in an 87-pitch performance. 

"He's a kid that wants the ball," Nilles said of Phillips. "He told us, 'I could throw on Saturday and come back on Monday' and that's how we wanted to script it. We wanted our guys who had the arms throwing on Day 1 so they could bounce back on Day 3. We just wanted to chip away and get outs however we could."  

Jack Mueller went 3-for-5 in the championship final with two runs and an RBI for Santa Ana while Barrett Ronson added two hits and scored a pair of runs.

Preston Conklin batted 2-for-4 with a run scored for Palomar, while Braedon Peterson-Cheek collected a pair of hits and scored a run.

The Dons' four-win path to the championship – needing to play in back-to-back double-headers over the final two games to win – has only been done THREE times over the past 26 years of the 3C2A State Baseball Championship (Santa Rosa in 2005, San Joaquin Delta in 2011 and Orange Coast in 2019).

SAC's baseball title was also the 24th state title in the history of the Orange Empire Conference. The OEC has now won five out of the last six state baseball championships, dating back to 2019.

SANTA ANA 19, PALOMAR 3

The Dons forced a winner-take-all championship with an onslaught of offense, en route to a 19-3 win over the Comets. After being held to just three runs on Sunday against Palomar, Santa Ana pulled away early and never looked back, pounding out 18 hits, including a 4-for-5, two-run, two-RBI performance from Ken Tomitaka. Mueller was a sparkplug from the top of the order, going 2-for-5 with four runs and six RBI, including a grand slam in the eighth inning. 

Paoletto kept his strong weekend of baseball alive, going 3-for-4 with three runs, a home run and two RBI. Reiter went 2-for-5 with two runs and two RBI, while Ben Melendrez added two hits, a run and two RBI in five at-bats.

SAC starter Adrian Villegas (3-0) moved from the bullpen to the starting mound and came through with an inspired performance. Fresh off an arm injury last year, Villegas held the Comet offense with just two runs on four hits over 5.1 innings with three walks and four strikeouts in an 87-pitch performance. Strong bullpen work was led by Matthew Solorzano, who threw 2.2 innings of scoreless relief on just one hit with four strikeouts.

Game Story by Tony Altobelli, CCCSIA