Orange Coast College

Baseball: Olson's 9th-inning home run lifts Pirates to 7-6 win

Thursday, March 13, 2008

COSTA MESA -- Sophomore centerfielder Cory Olson came through with another game-winning blast for the Orange Coast College baseball team as his two-out, two-run, ninth-inning home run propelled the Pirates to a 7-6 comeback win over the visiting Cypress Chargers on Thursday.

Olson, who earlier this year, smacked an eighth-inning, game-winning grand slam against the College of the Canyons, hit a 2-2 curveball over the left-field fence to lift the Pirates (17-6-1, 4-1 in Orange Empire Conference) to their fourth conference win in a row.

"He's one heck of a player," OCC head coach John Altobelli said of Olson. "He's the right guy to have up in that situation. Great players thrive under those types of situations and he's proven that he's more than capable of handling it."

Olson finished the afternoon 2-for-4 with three runs scored and two RBI for Coast. Drew Hillman added three hits and two RBI and Ryan Sheeks sparked OCC's offense with a two-run double in the bottom of the second inning to erase an early 2-0 deficit.

OCC took the lead in the third when Olson singled, advanced to second on a wild pitch, stole third and scored on an RBI double by Hillman to make it 3-2.

Run-scoring singles by Hillman and Jourdan Watanabe highlighted OCC's two-run fifth, making the score 5-2.

It stayed that way until the Chargers (17-6, 3-2) regained the lead with a four-run seventh, but that only helped set up Olson's dramatics.

In the bottom of the ninth, Chris Fung got things going with a one-out single to left, but he was retired on a Wes Kartch fielder's choice.

With Kartch on first, Olson tried the surprise the Chargers' defense with a drag bunt, but the ball rolled foul. Four pitches later, there would be no bunting as Olson's fly cleared the fence with room to spare, sending his Pirate teammates to home plate for a wild celebration.

OCC will return to action on Friday at Southwestern, beginning at 1 p.m. as part of a make-up rained out game from Feb. 20. The Pirates' next home game will be Tuesday, March 25 against OEC rival Golden West, beginning at 2:30 p.m.