Orange Coast College

Baseball: Pirates keep on winning, 7-5

Thursday, April 03, 2008

COSTA MESA -- When teams get on a winning streak, it seems like players up and down the lineup find ways to contribute. That was indeed the case for the Orange Coast College baseball team during Thursday's 7-5 Orange Empire Conference win over visiting Fullerton.

A strong relief effort from Justin Peterson and contributions up and down the OCC lineup sparked the Pirates to their eighth straight conference win and 11th overall win in their last 12 games.

Peterson (3-0) pitched 4 2/3 innings of relief and held the Hornets to just one run on three hits, walking one and striking out two.

Trailing 4-2, OCC (24-7-1, 8-1 in OEC) responded with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth, highlighted by No. 9 hitter Ryan Sheeks' two-out, two-run single to center that scored Kyle Muhlsteff and Ryan Dunn. Dunn made it to scoring position in the first place thanks to a heads-up baserunning play that caught the Hornets (21-10, 2-7) by surprise.

Following a pop out to first, the Hornets believed that timeout was called, but Dunn took off for second during the lull in the action and reached second base. That proved crucial as Sheeks followed with a single that scored two runs instead of one.

Fullerton regained the lead in the top of the fifth on a solo home run from Michael Stephens, but the Pirates again tied things up in the bottom half of the frame. A two-out, RBI single by Dunn scored Jourdan Watanabe after a double-play nearly wiped out OCC's scoring chances.

In the sixth, OCC took the lead for good when Wes Kartch muscled up and hit his first home run of the season, a solo shot over the right-field fence to make it 6-5. Cory Olson was then hit by a pitch, went to third on a errant pickoff attempt and scored on an RBI single by Watanabe.

The bottom of the Pirates lineup -- Muhlsteff, Dunn, Brett Wallach and Sheeks -- went a combined 8-for-17 with three runs scored and five RBI.

Wallach came in the ninth and picked up his eighth save of the season and his first since Feb. 25.

OCC returns to action on Saturday at home against Riverside, beginning at noon.