Orange Coast College

Baseball: Hillman, Dixon lead Pirates past Golden West, 8-2

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

COSTA MESA -- Thanks to a five-run seventh inning, the Orange Coast College baseball team was able to cruise to an 8-2 win over rival Golden West on Tuesday in Orange Empire Conference action.

OCC's win, combined with Irvine Valley's 12-9 loss to Fullerton, puts the Pirates (29-12-1, 13-6 in conference) a game ahead of the Lasers for second place in the OEC standings. OCC and IVC will play in Irvine on Thursday before the same two teams play at OCC on Friday. Both games begin at 2 p.m.

Drew Hillman helped pace the Pirates' 15-hit attack with a 4-for-5 performance, scoring twice and driving in two. Four other Coast teammates -- Cory Olson (2-for-5, two runs), Kyle Muhlsteff (2-for-4, one run, two RBI), Mike Ferraro (2-for-4, one RBI) and Ryan Dunn (2-for-3, one run) each posted multi-hit games.

After a couple of rough outings, sophomore lefty Brandon Dixon was back on the winning track, allowing two unearned runs over eight innings, improving his record to 9-4. He allowed just five hits -- all singles -- with one walk and two strikeouts.

OCC jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the fourth on RBI singles by Ferraro and Dunn, but the Rustlers (20-21, 5-14) hung tough. With the help of a couple of OCC errors, the Rustlers tied the game at 2 in the top of the seventh.

But the Pirates ripped through three GWC pitchers in the seventh, sending 10 men to the plate and scoring five times.

With the bases loaded and nobody out, Wes Kartch put the Pirates in front for good with a two-run single to right, scoring Dunn and Chris Fung on the play. An RBI single by Hillman, an RBI grounder by Muhlsteff and an RBI single by Brett Wallach capped off the Pirates' scoring spree.

OCC added a run in the bottom of the eighth on a two-out double by Hillman to make it 8-2 before Wallach pitched a scoreless ninth to wrap things up.