Orange Coast College

Baseball: Pirates wrap up second place in OEC with 12-6 win over IVC

Friday, May 02, 2008

COSTA MESA -- After a tough 11-8 loss on Thursday and an early 5-0 deficit on Friday, it looked like the Orange Coast College baseball team appeared to be sputtering into the postseason.

That sputter turned into a full-blown roar by the Pirates' offense as they rallied to top Irvine Valley 12-6 to clinch second place in the Orange Empire Conference standings.

The runner-up finish in the toughest conference in the state should prove favorable for the Pirates as they await the announcement of the playoff seedings, which take place on Sunday. A No. 2 seed would give OCC home-field advantage throughout the first two rounds of the playoffs.

Sophomore reliever Matt Hauser (pictured left) improved to 7-1 with five innings of standout relief. The righty allowed just four hits and one run during his time on the mound. Freshman closer Brett Wallach wrapped things up with two scoreless innings of work.

Offensively, the entire lineup provided some highlights. Eight different batters had hits (seven had multi-hit games), eight different players scored runs and seven different players had RBIs for the Pirates (30-13-1, 14-7 in conference).

Leading the way was freshman rightfielder Ryan Sheeks (pictured rigth), who went 4-for-5 with three runs scored. Kyle Muhlsteff and Jourdan Watanabe each had three hits, one run and two RBI and Chris Fung reached base all five times, scoring twice and driving in one.

IVC (30-15, 13-8) jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the top half of the second before the Pirates began to find their offensive stride.

A two-run home run by Ryan Dunn -- his first of the season -- get Coast on the scoreboard in the bottom of the second.

OCC trailed 6-4 in the bottom of the fifth before sending 10 batters to the plate in a five-run outburst. An RBI bases-loaded walk by Wes Kartch was followed up with a pair of two-run hits by Drew Hillman and Muhlsteff, giving the Pirates a 9-6 advantage.

From there, Watanabe smacked a two-out, two-run double in the bottom of the seventh and Fung capped off the offense with an RBI double to left in the bottom of the eighth.